Shatterbound
by rainblade prime
Summary: Takes place in tf4. What will happen when four transformers fangirls get sucked into Age of Extinction? Will they be able to save the ones they love and restore hope, or will they perish at the hands of the enemy?
1. Chapter 1

Dawn woke up, hearing the delightful sound of rain pattering on the side of the house. She sat up from her bed and stretched, already thinking of what she wanted to do. She yawned and opened her eyes. She looked outside her window, greeted with another cloudy, rainy day. It had been overcast for the past week; the weather forecasters didn't understand why. They said it should have moved on a couple days ago. Dawn sighed. No one really trusted what they said anymore. Half the time they were wrong.  
She slid out from under the sheets and opened the bedroom door. The smell of breakfast and coffee greeted her as her walked down the stairs.  
"Good morning, Dawn," Dawn heard her friend say.  
"'Morning, Stella," Dawn said, yawning. "What are you making?"  
"I'm making omelets, sleepy-head," she laughed.  
"Yeah, yeah. You know I'm not a morning person,"Dawn said, walking up behind her and peering over her shoulder to watch her cook. They both liked to cook; but they had decided that Stella could cook in the mornings, and Dawn would cook in the evenings.  
"So, what should we do today?" Stella asked.  
Dawn pretended to ponder it for a moment. "Hmmm, I was thinking we could go down to that one store that just opened up and see if they have any Transformers stuff," she said. They were both total Transfans, and they absolutely loved anything that had to do with them.  
Stella grinned as she set the second omelette on a plate and handed the plate to Dawn. She grabbed the other plate, and they sat down at the table.  
They finished their breakfast quickly, and before they knew it, they had changed their clothes and found themselves walking to the store.  
The second they stepped inside the store, they both squealed in delight.  
The store was almost completely filled with the Transformers franchise.  
Both of them looked at each other for a second, then dashed off to the closest thing they saw.

They spent almost two hours exploring the store, but they kept getting side tracked by different things.  
They finally left the store and headed back to the house. Once Dawn was inside, she set the bag next to her and collapsed into the recliner.  
"Primus, I'm so exhausted. Don't you ever let me do that again," She said, both gasping and laughing at the same time.  
Stella flopped onto the floor. "Not for that long," she agreed.  
Once both of them gained enough strength to move again, Dawn sat up and looked at Stella. "So, what did you get this time?" She asked.  
Stella started to pull out the things from her bag.  
"Well, I got my other action figure that I wanted of Sunstreaker, a poster of the twins, and a bracelet with AllSpark fragments. Oh, and I also got some earrings with the Autobot insignia on them," she said, pulling each thing out.  
"I got the same bracelet, too! But I also have a necklace with the AllSpark shard on it," Dawn said. She pulled it out of her bag to show Stella.  
"Oh, I also got a dog tag with Optimus on it, a necklace with an Autobot symbol, and this really cool poster of Optimus in Age of Extinction, too." She showed her friend the poster, grinning. Stella looked at it once and immediately burst out laughing.  
"What the Pit is so funny?" Dawn asked. She turned the poster around and looked at it. She immediately noticed what was wrong.  
There was a giant felt mustache on his face plates with made him look like a Cybertronian clown who had had too much energon.  
"Very funny," Dawn said, her mouth forming a thin line as she very carefully removed it from the poster. She was glad that it didn't ruin her poster. Stella was trying to stop laughing, but couldn't.  
"You're just lucky that it didn't ruin my poster. If it did, you would see my bad side," Dawn said firmly, growling.  
"I know," Stella said, still giggling. "That's why I got the ones that were easy to remove." Then she started to laugh all over again.  
Dawn started to laugh as well; she had to admit, it was funny.  
But little did they know that their happiness was about to come to an end.


	2. Chapter 2

Dawn eagerly logged onto Stella's laptop. Both Stella and Dawn shared their laptop and tablet with each other, mainly because it simplified things in their small but comfortable home.  
Dawn quickly opened a chat box and typed a quick greeting.  
~Hey~ she typed. She didn't have to wait long for a reply.  
~What's up?~ came the reply.  
~Nothing much, Stella and I went to a store that just opened up and bought a bunch of tf stuff. You should have seen the size of the place! It was huge! And, on top of that, almost the entire store was filled with it! It was awesome!~  
~Did you see anything about Jazz?~  
Dawn smiled. Natasha lived in Washington DC, but she didn't care. They were states apart, but she would always ask Stella and Dawn that, along with their other online friend, Lindsay. She had a complete crush on the Autobot medic, with wasn't a surprise since she had a part time job as a nurse at a hospital. Dawn, Stella, and Natasha often would call Lindsay "Nurse Darby" because of it.  
Dawn snapped out of her thoughts and quickly typed another reply.  
~I did see some stuff! although they were ridiculously expensive. I was able to take pictures of them, so you didn't feel completely left out~  
The reply came quickly.  
~Ooooh, show me!~  
~One sec, I have to snag my tablet from Stella~  
~Oh, you mean your partner-in-crime since day one of this fangirl adventure?~  
Dawn could almost see the smirk that came with that reply.  
~That's the one~  
Dawn hurried out of Stella's room and ran down the stairs.  
"Stella! I need to borrow my tablet from you for a minute!" She said loudly.  
"Okay, okay, hold your horses! It's not like some 'con is about to kill you and the only thing that will save you is your tablet!" Stella retorted.  
She was sitting on the couch, the tablet being charged as she watched a video. When Dawn appeared at the bottom of the stairs, she paused the video. She quickly unplugged it from the charger and handed it to Dawn.  
She quickly grabbed it and searched her photos until she found what she was looking for. She did a quick copy-and-paste and sent the pictures to Natasha.  
Satisfied with it, Dawn handed the tablet back to Stella, who gladly took it from her hands.  
"You talking to Lindsay or Natasha?" Stella asked.  
"Natasha," Dawn replied. "Lindsay hasn't been on for a few days now, which is really strange. She always finds time to get on at some point during the day."  
Stella didn't bother looking up from the tablet screen. "She's probably saving someone's life or something," she said, not paying much attention.  
"Stella, you never worry about anything," Dawn scolded. Dawn was concerned for her online friend. She had made a promise to be on at some point every day, but she hadn't been for a while; and when she made a promise, she kept it. Dawn had never known her to go back on any promises she had made, and she was certain that something was wrong.  
"Do we still have the phone number she gave us?" She asked Stella.  
"Yeah, its where it's always been. Why?"  
"I'm going to call her to see if she's okay," Dawn said, already heading into the kitchen. She opened a drawer and pulled out a small phone book from underneath the silverware.  
"Dawn, I'm pretty sure she would tell us if something was wrong," Stella said.  
"But what if something was wrong, and she couldn't contact us to tell us that something was wrong?" I asked, becoming slightly irritated.  
"Dawn!" She said, drawing it out. "You're over-exaggerating!"  
"No, I'm being rational, Stella," Dawn said firmly. She found the page she wanted and pulled out her smartphone from her pocket and dialed the number. She listened impatiently. She was convinced something was wrong.  
Finally, Lindsay picked up.  
"Hello?" The voice on the other end seemed uncertain.  
"Lindsay, is that you?" Dawn would recognize her friend's voice anywhere.  
"I'm sorry, I'm not sure-" There was a startled yelp on the other end.  
"Are you okay?" Dawn asked, puzzled.  
"Yes, everything is fine! Bad guys hardly come in my neighborhood," Lindsay stammered.  
"Oh, well, okay. I was just wondering if anything was wrong, because you haven't been on-"  
"Listen, whoever you are, I do not know you!" Dawn heard another yelp. "I'm busy, so please, stop pestering me." The voice shook.  
Dawn paused for a moment before replying. "Okay, I'm sorry. I must have called the wrong number. Sorry to intrude. I hope you have a good rest of the day safely," she said before hanging up.  
Just as she slid her phone into her pocket, a shrill scream came from upstairs.  
"Stella?!"  
Dawn ran up the stairs as fast as she could, taking two at a time. Only did she stop when she saw her friend standing in the doorway of her room, frozen in place.  
Dawn slowly stepped forward to look into Stella's room. Only then did she realize why her friend had sounded horrified.  
Everything was gone.  
Anything that had anything to do with the Transformers just disappeared.  
Dawn immediately raced to her room. Her room suffered the same fate.  
Dawn reluctantly walked into her room, unable to believe her eyes. Who would have done this? she thought to herself. She tried to contain her anger as best she could.  
She looked around the room, almost as if she were searching for clues. She sifted through her blankets, laundry, and her trash. Nothing.  
She stopped. She slowly walked out of her room and down the stairs, her heart heavy with sadness. She saw the bags that she and Stella had used to bring their things home lying on the floor. She picked them up and was about to put them in the trash when she heard things hitting each other in the bags. Her heart lifted a little.  
She looked inside, and there, lying in the bags, were the Autobot necklace and earrings, the AllSpark shard necklace, and the AllSpark fragment bracelets.  
"Stella!" Dawn yelled. She got no response.  
She huffed and walked upstairs again.  
"Stella," she said, more firmly this time.  
"There all gone," Stella whispered. "Everything. Not even one figurine of Sunny or Sides."  
"Snap out of it! Look," Dawn said, holding out her friend's bag to her. Stella hesitated, but finally grabbed it and looked inside. Her eyes widened a little.  
"At least they didn't take everything," she said, looking slightly relieved.  
"I think I should go tell Natasha what has happened," Dawn said, squeezing past Stella and reopened her laptop.  
She stared at the screen for a minute in disbelief.  
"Um, Stella?"  
Stella came up behind her. "What?"  
"It's the same on your laptop."  
Stella gave a half-strangled cry and pushed Dawn aside. She frantically searched her entire laptop, even searching it online, but nothing at all came up. There was nothing, save the AllSpark pieces and the Autobot jewelry, that even hinted anything about the Transformers.  
"Stella," Dawn said, "you might want to hear this."  
"What?! I'm about to have a panic attack!"  
Dawn took a deep breath. "You know how in all the fanfiction stories that we've read…?"  
Stella looked at her with a blank expression for a moment. Then her eyes widened in both fear and shock. "You can't mean…"  
"I do," Dawn said. "I believe we are in Age of Extinction."


	3. Chapter 3

"And just how do you know we are in Age of Extinction?" Stella asked somewhat snarky.  
Dawn pointed out a window. "The sign."  
Stella looked, and her eyes went wide. "Primus," she breathed, tears forming in her eyes. "That must mean... that they're offline..."  
"Honestly, I cannot prove that. All I know at this point is that we are, in fact, in the Bayverse world," Dawn said. She continued looking out the window as she thought. If they were in Age of Extinction, then that meant Lockdown was out there somewhere, and he was killing Autobots and Decepticons alike. Dawn closed her eyes in pain. Watching the movie was very painful for her, especially all that Optimus had went through. And now she was living in the movie, which did not help console her at all.  
Suddenly, Dawn snapped her eyes open, her eyes wide with realization and concern.  
"Stella, I think Lindsay is captured by the 'cons," she said lowly.  
"How's that possible? It doesn't make any sense, if she was captured by the 'cons, then that means that they knew about her long enough to find her and capture her, and we had only just gone into the Bayverse world," Stella reasoned.  
"I don't know, but it's the only thing that makes the most sense right now," Dawn said. "We need to call Natasha and tell her what's happened." Her face was serious and composed.  
"But how are we going to do that? We don't have her phone number," Stella said, obviously panicking some.  
"Remember, she owns her own small business. If we can find her business in the Yellow Pages, then we will be able to call her," Dawn explained.  
Stella saw the ingenious in the idea, and nodded. A small amount of hope formed in her chest, and she hurried to the bookcase that completely covered one wall of the living room. Dawn joined her, and together they pulled out every single Yellow Pages they had.  
It took them over an hour to find Natasha's shop, but they eventually found it.  
"Dawn, here it is," Stella said. She slid the book over to Dawn, and she quickly scanned the page until she found the name of their friend's shop name.  
"Okay, get my phone and call this number," Dawn said in an urgent tone.  
Stella grabbed Dawn's phone from her friend's back pocket and dialed the number as Dawn said the number out loud for Stella.  
"It's ringing!" Stella suddenly said when she put the phone to her ear.  
"Here, give me the phone," Dawn said, holding out her hand. Stella hesitated.  
"Why?"  
Dawn sighed, slightly annoyed. "I think I understand what is going on more than you at the moment, which will make explaining this to Natasha a little easier."  
"Oh," was Stella's reply. She handed Dawn her phone, and Dawn held it up to her ear.  
only a couple of seconds later, someone picked up on the other end.  
"Who's this?" Came the reply.  
"Natasha? This is Dawn," said person told the other person.  
"Dawn? What are you- how were able to call me? Wait, don't answer that. Just tell me this: What the Pit is going on?! All my TF stuff is gone. It just disappeared," Natasha said with a panicked tone.  
"Nat, you need to calm down. We need to assess the situation. My belief is that we are in Age-," Dawn started to say in a serious tone, but then she heard a muffled scream at the other end.  
"Natasha? Natasha?!"  
"Let me go, you slagger!" She barely heard over the phone.  
"Natasha, what's going on?" Dawn yelled into the phone.  
She heard a dull thunk, and knew her other friend was in serious trouble.  
Dawn tried to keep a level head on the situation, but the shock was getting the better of her. She started to panic.  
"Stella...?" She said, her eyes wide. The phone clattered to the floor. "Natasha's in trouble." Dawn got a far-away look, then suddenly face-palmed. "Slaggit!"  
"What?" Stella asked, walking up to her.  
"How could I not see it sooner?" Dawn said, not hearing Stella.  
"Dawn, what is it?" Stella said louder.  
"All the clues she gave me pointed right to it. I am so stupid! She practically said it, plain and simple!"  
"Dawn!" Stella shouted grabbing Dawn and shaking her vigorously. Dawn immediately snapped out of her thoughts and looked at her.  
"They're both in trouble. Really, really big trouble."  
"What kind of trouble?" Stella said, not understanding.  
"Like, 'they just got captured by the government, or worse, lockdown' kind of trouble, not a 'con," Dawn said lowly.  
Stella swore under her breath. "We need to rescue them."  
"No. What we need to do is find the rest of the Autobots, save them from their deaths if we can, and then rendezvous with Optimus so that we have a better chance of rescuing them. But our main priority is the Autobots. They are much more important than Lindsay and Natasha, as much as I dislike saying it," Dawn told her friend.  
Stella put a hand on Dawn's shoulder. "I know it's hard. You want to save them and the Autobots at the same time. And you made the right decision. They would say the same."  
Dawn nodded silently before walking away and grabbing a set of keys and their purses. She quickly grabbed her phone off of the floor, then grabbed the bags that held the AllSpark shard necklace and bracelets and Autobot insignia jewelry.  
"We should keep what's left of our Cybertronian things, just in case we might need to use them." Dawn explained. Now it was Stella's turn to nod.  
They silently walked out of the house and locked the door before heading to the parked pickup truck in the driveway. It was an older model, and it was starting to rust, but it still worked, and it had gotten them out of several problems in the past. People never really liked the two, and they made sure that Dawn and Stella knew it.  
Dawn pushed that thought aside for a later time, if there was a later time, and unlocked the truck's driver door. She pulled the door open and climbed in before reaching over and unlocking the passenger door for Stella.  
As Stella climbed in, Dawn nearly slammed the driver door closed before putting the key in the ignition and turned the key. The engine spluttered, then roared to life. Stella pulled the passenger door closed.  
Dawn pulled the truck out of the driveway and onto the street. There wasn't many people out then; it was starting to get dark.  
As Dawn drove silently, she thought about what she knew from the movie.  
They passed by a Lamborghini, and Dawn glared at it angrily. It was the wrong color, since it was orange, but she still could not look at one without constantly being reminded of Lockdown. She hated that Cybertronian with every molecule in her body. The things that he had done that she had seen in the movie was all she needed for her hatred of the bounty hunter. There was no doubt that he had done even worse, and it made the rage build inside of her.  
"Dawn?" Stella suddenly spoke up. She had noticed that her friend was becoming extremely upset.  
Dawn realized she was gripping the steering wheel so hard that her knuckles were white. She tried to think of Optimus, of Lindsay and Natasha, of the other Autobots, but all those thoughts eventually led her back to Lockdown.  
"Dawn, I think that maybe you need a break from driving. You need to calm down and rest for a while," Stella said softly.  
"No, it's okay, I'm fine. Just, caught up in my thoughts, that's all," she said, loosening her grip on the steering wheel. She took a few, almost-inaudible, deep breaths to calm her down.  
"Are you sure?" Stella asked.  
"Yes, I'm fine."  
Stella wasn't sure whether to believe what her friend was saying or not, but she decided to let the subject drop. It was never a good idea to be on Dawn's angry side. She leaned back in the passenger seat and soon fell asleep.  
Dawn continued to drive in silence, her thoughts roaming freely. Her thoughts went from her friends, to the government, to NEST, to the man-made Transformers, to the Autobots and back, but their was only one being that stayed on her mind the longest. She just hoped that she was able to reach his medic in time to save him.

xxxxxXXXXxxxxxx

A woman was violently shoved into a dark, damp cell. She fell hard onto the floor, to which she groaned. She heaved herself up, ignoring the pain in her hip.  
"There is no place for those who side with them," the man who pushed her in the cell sneered, slamming the cell door closed and locking it.  
"For who? The ones who fight for what they believe is right and honest, or the ones that refused to be a traitor to the them, the same ones who helped us when we desperately needed them to tip the balance in our favor against you, and even going as far as to help us with our own problems within our kind?" She growled.  
"The ones who are blind to not see that what you do is pointless and does not help you at all. It only weakens you," the man said gruffly, walking off.  
Once the footsteps died away, she slowly took in her surroundings. Painfully, she made her way to a corner in her cell, where a dirty cot hung. She slowly sat down on the cot, wincing at the pain that erupted in her legs and abdomen. She knew that she would bear the bruises for a long time, and she had no doubt that there was a couple broken ribs that they would never fix. Her ankle was swollen, and bruises dotted her arms and legs, but she managed to keep her composure in the situation. She looked at the cell across from hers.  
She saw someone shift in one corner of the other cell, and finally, they slowly made their way to the cell door. It was a man, dressed in tattered clothes, but she could tell that they had once been fine. She looked at a symbol on the man's lapel. It was dirty, which made it harder to distinguish, but a few moments later, the woman' eyes widened.  
"That's the NEST symbol!" she breathed. The man nodded slowly.  
"I worked there," the man rasped. The woman recognized the voice, despite his rasping.  
"Major Lennox?"  
The man looked at her suspiciously. "How do you know my name? Do I know you?"  
The woman shook her head. "No, you don't, and it would be hard to explain why I do know you somewhat." She opened her mouth to continue speaking, the the man interrupted her.  
"I have time. I will know if you are lying or not, and if you are, the instant I have a chance, I am going to kill you," he said. She looked into his eyes. They were ice cold.  
She looked away, thinking. Should she tell him the truth, or make up something that he would believe? She figured that there was a very slight chance that he would believe her if she told him the truth; after all, she was still having a hard time believing it herself. Yet all the proof was there.  
She heard Lennox hit the ground with a dull thud, and he groaned in pain. The woman looked at him. He was holding his leg gingerly, almost as if he were afraid to touch it.  
"How did they hurt you?" She asked.  
"What does it matter?" He growled.  
The woman huffed. "I am a doctor, Lennox, and I can be just as grumpy as Ratchet. I am not in the mood for this, so tell me what happened, or you may never know what's wrong with your leg."  
Lennox looked at the woman. "You know Ratchet?" He asked.  
"Not directly, but yes, I know him. And if that slagging bounty hunter has killed him..." She said, narrowing her eyes in anger at a spot in the wall, "...I will make him pay."  
"Lockdown?"  
The woman growled at the name being spoken. "We will not speak of that blasted name. I cannot... I can't..." She said, looking away and angrily throwing the hidden rock in her hand at the wall, trying to fight the tears that threatened to spill out. "I cannot bear to see or picture Ratchet die again at the hands of that bastard."  
"Again?"  
It took the woman a few moments to be able to speak.  
"I suppose this is the perfect time to explain everything, but I'm telling you this now: you aren't going to like it, and you aren't going to believe me, and you have no reason to. All I ask is that you hear me out and wait to vent your anger once I am done talking. After that, you can kill me, if you want, since it looks like we're going to die here anyways."  
The man eventually nodded.  
"My name is Lindsay, and where I come from, you, NEST, the Autobots and the Decepticons, and everything else pertaining to them, comes from the Transformers franchise. None of you exist where I come from."


	4. Chapter 4

As Lindsay continued to explain everything, describing each movie in detail, the crease in Lennox's brow continued to grow. He had tried to interrupt several times, but Lindsay stopped him every time with a steady hand. Despite this, he could tell that she was anything but calm at the moment.

He was shocked at the fact that she knew Ironhide had been killed by Sentinel. Lindsay knew it was still an open wound for him, and her heart softened towards him. She knew the feeling all too well because she was a nurse. She had seen so many deaths, so many loved ones go. She herself had lost one of her closest friends and comrade only a couple months before, and the pain was still raw.

Once Lindsay finished, she leaned back against the wall, gently massaging her hip in a vain attempt to get rid of the pain there. Lennox watched her; he saw the sad, pained look in her eyes, and decided to at least give the benefit of the doubt for now.

A voice spoke up from a few cells away, surprising both of them.

"Lindsay?" Both Lennox and Lindsay heard the person shift closer to them.

Lindsay sat there, trying to think of the reason why the voice sounded familiar.

Recognition suddenly light up her eyes. "Natasha?"

"Lindsay! Oh, Primus, they got you too?" Natasha asked.

"Yeah. I guess I'm not as strong as I think, because I'm here. They probably knocked me out," Lindsay said, leaning back with a soft sigh.

"Not strong...?! Lindsay, you're the strongest woman I know! You know hundreds of ways to defend yourself, even if you weren't a nurse! Martial arts, tai-kwon-do, karate, the whole shebang!"

Lindsay sighed again, louder this time. "But none of that helped me, because I'm obviously here," she said.

"That's because they don't play by the rules. They want to make sure that they get whoever they want, and they'll do anything to achieve that goal," Major Lennox said. He shifted to get more comfortable, but forgot about his injured leg and grimaced at the pain.

"Lennox," Lindsay said, "what did they do to you?"

He sighed, sagging against the bars of the cell. "I was in Mexico when it happened," he began. Both Lindsay and Natasha stiffened.

"My team and I were there, along with Optimus and some of the other Autobots, when we were ambushed." His voice became strained. "They appeared out of the brush and the scattered homes, all of them armed more extensively than my own men. We were outmatched; there was at least three times as many of them as my team.

"It was a massacre. They fired on the 'bots brutally, and my men tried to stop them, but there was just too many of them. Few of my team survived, and those that did were captured. I just hope that we gave the 'bots enough time to escape," he said, sighing sadly. Lindsay realized that this was a side to him that he rarely showed, and made her sink into her depression even more.

"They didn't," she said mournfully.

Natasha broke down in sobs.

Lindsay stood up and moved as close as she could to Natasha's cell within her own.

"Natasha, shhh, it's okay," she said in a soft voice.

"They're dead! Nothing is okay!" Natasha wailed before continuing to cry.

Lennox looked at Lindsay with a questioning look, but she shook her head.

"Now's not the time to continue talking about the subject. It will just upset her more." Lindsay managed to pull herself to her feet from off the cell floor and walked towards the cell door. She grasped it and jerked. It rattled in the hinges.

"This door was poorly made. If I can find a weak spot, I might be able to force my way out. Give me a few minutes," she said to no one in particular. She stepped back from the door and studied it with a careful eye. She crossed her arms as she looked.

After a few minutes, she stepped towards it again, running her hand along the bar that was connected to all three hinges. Her sensitive fingers brushed against a hair-thin crack running down the bar. Lindsay gave the faintest of smiles.

"Lennox, do you have anything strong that could help widen this fracture in the metal?" She asked, all business now.

"No, they took all my weapons away when they captured me," he replied.

"Nothing at all? Nothing that could help?"

He pondered it for a moment. "No," he finally said.

Lindsay's attention turned to Natasha, who was now crying quietly.

"Natasha? Do you have anything?"

Natasha hiccuped. "What?"

Lindsay gave a frustrated sigh. "Do you have anything strong that could help widen this crack in the metal?"

"N-no, I don't. I'm s-sorry, Lindsay."

"It's okay. It's okay," she said distractedly, rising to her feet with a groan. She paced around in her cell, thinking.

"What about your glasses? They're wire, and could pick the lock," Lennox suggested.

"Of course! Why didn't I think of that?" She said, rushing over to the cell door again. She snatched the glasses off of her lean face and fumbled with the plastic surrounding the ear piece.

"It's a good thing they're only reading glasses," Lindsay mumbled, finally pulling the plastic off. She snapped the side of the glasses off and tossed the rest on the floor. She reached out of the cell with one hand and held the lock with her other.

She felt around the bottom of the lock until she found the key hole. She slid the wire into the lock and tried to open it.

After several long minutes, Lindsay began to get frustrated. "What the Pit is wrong with this lock?" she swore under her breath.

She did everything she thought she could possibly do to get it open, but it still didn't open.

"Frag this!" She said angrily. She turned away from the door, only to whip around and slam into the door with all her strength.

The cell door barely managed to stay in the hinges, but it was the click that made everyone stop.

The lock had opened, and now it hung limply on the metal bars.

Lindsay slowly pushed the door open with one finger. It creaked, but it opened with ease. Lindsay gave a triumphant smile before running out of the cell to Lennox's cell door.

It took her much less time to open the locks, which she was grateful for. Time becomes precious when things become dire.

Lindsay helped Lennox to his feet, despite his protesting. He hobbled out of his cell just as Lindsay moved to Natasha's cell and quickly picked the lock. Natasha rushed out as soon as the door was open.

"Lindsay," Lennox said, grabbing said person's attention. Lindsay turned towards him. Lennox was leaning against the wall, but the look in his eyes said he was determined and angry.

"The rest of my team are in the other cells." Without hesitation, Lindsay rushed over and started unlocking the other cells.

Soon, everyone was standing outside of their cells. Whispered conversations immediately washed over Lindsay and Natasha, the voices reverberating off the stone walls. Lindsay repeatedly tried to get everyone's attention, but her efforts were futile. Finally, Leenox gave an exasperated sigh and took the matter in his own hands.

A loud whistle echoed off the walls, almost drowning out the conversations. Everyone immediately quieted and looked around for the source of the noise. One by one, fifteen pairs of eyes landed on Lennox. Lindsay whispered a "thank you," to him. He nodded grimly.

"Okay, everyone. We need to find a way out of here. We gotta stay quiet, or we're gonna die," he said in a hushed voice.

"Talk about being blunt," Lindsay grumbled under her breath. Lennox heard her but ignored the comment.

We will need to go in small units in order to escape," he continued in a quiet voice, but everyone knew that he was taking the matter into his own hands, and doing a good job of it, as expected.

He broke everyone up into three teams, each group containing five people. Lindsay and Natasha were glad that Robert Epps was still alive; but almost everyone else they knew from the movies were killed, mainly from the ambush in Mexico.

Lindsay and Natasha were with Lennox and two others, and finally decided that the fangirls would go last, after much arguing, mainly on Natasha's and Lindsay's part.

"You guys are much more important than us, so we should stay behind to make sure that as much of your team can make it to safety before they find out we're gone," Lindsay argued.

"Besides," Natasha continued with a small sniffle, "You guys are the ones that are more deadly. And we are the civilians," she said, giving Lennox and Epps a small, sad smile. Epps had silently walked up and stood beside his friend and comrade in arms, his arms crossed, his lips set into a thin line.

They argued a bit more before the two soldiers finally let the subject drop; it was pointless to argue with the two steadfast fangirls, considering the situation they were still in.

Lennox turned on his heel and walked off, causing the quiet Epps and Lindsay and Natasha to silently follow the two men.

Their plan was quickly set into action. Lindsay and Natasha would act as their scouts, after a very heated argument among many of the soldiers.

The two fangirl friends ran ahead to the edge of the corridor and peered out as much as they dared, holding their breath. They realized they needn't have bothered; a long flight of stairs loomed above them.

"Stairs... My mortal enemy," Natasha murmured, trying to lighten the mood and make her friend at least smile, but failed. Lindsay looked back at her and gave her a cold look before turning and heading back to the soldiers, who waited close to the hallway that led to the seemingly ominous staircase.

"Well?" Epps said, crossing his arms yet again.

"There is a staircase that leads up to a closed door. There are no locks on our side of the door, but I have no doubt that they are on the other side," Lindsay said.

"So there's no way out," Lennox grunted.

"I'm afraid so," Lindsay said soberly. She was about to say something else, but a commotion from the other end of the hallway caught everyone's attention.

The wall exploded.

The soldiers all immediately assumed it was some sort of attack, and acted on that impulse. The fangirls, however, were just about scared out of their minds.

When the dust cleared, they saw a figure standing in the gaping hole in the wall.

"We don't have all day," the figure said in a female voice, her tone completely serious.

"Dawn?!" Both Lindsay and Natasha exclaimed simultaneously.


	5. Chapter 5

Dawn's attention instantly focused on Lindsay and Natasha's surprised faces and frowned.  
"I thought that Ratchet was in this one," she said, looking around. Her intense gaze softened a little when she recognized the faces of many of the soldiers, then frowned again.  
"I can't take you all. There are too many of you, and there is only so much room in my pickup truck." She sounded regretful, and it was understandable. The soldiers would be of valuable help in aiding the Autobots, but since she did not have the means necessary to transport them to safety, some of them would have to be left behind.  
An idea came to her, and a thoughtful look quickly shone in her eyes.  
"I remember driving by the entrance of a small cave when I came here. It is not too far away, and it just might be big enough to shelter you and hide your heat signatures from others."  
A small, rare smile formed on both Lennox's and Epps's face.  
"I like her. She would have made a good asset to our team," Epps said to Lennox, who received an agreeing nod from his comrade in arms.  
Lindsay and Natasha rushed up to Dawn and gave her a bone-crushing hug. The soldiers as well stepped forward and nodded their thanks before calmly walking through the large hole in the wall.  
There were men lying on the ground, their badges gleaming in the moonlight. Cemetery Wind, they all read. The traitorous group that hunt down Autobots and Decepticons alike, led by Arnold Attigner.  
The soldiers sent questioning looks towards Dawn, who had just stepped out of the hole herself, her friends tagging along beside her.  
One of the soldiers knelt next to a fallen Cemetery Wind soldier and checked for a pulse. After a moment, he shook his head.  
"What?!" Dawn cried, running over and check for herself.  
"I-I don't understand, I only shot them in their shoulders. I made sure of it," she said, confused and horrified.  
The other soldiers checked the other Cemetery Wind men, but received the same result.  
"No," Dawn breathed, her heart lurching. Her eyes showed grief and pain, and although she extremely disliked Cemetery Wind and anyone associated with them, their death took a heavy toll on her. It weighed on her heavily, and she couldn't understand what had happened.  
Lennox walked up to her and laid a hand on her shoulder. He looked into her eyes, and although he said nothing, his eyes spoke volumes.  
After several seconds, Dawn nodded slightly, and Lennox let go of her shoulder.  
"Alright, men, let's salvage whatever weapons we can find," he said firmly, turning away from her.  
Dawn gave Epps a sad, questioning look, and he leaned towards her and whispered, "Protocol." Dawn nodded ever so slightly in response. She was still in shock that the men were dead.  
The men did as they were told, rummaging around for weapons, when Dawn heard a missile be launched.  
"No!" She screamed, instintively reaching towards her hip and pulling a pistol from its hidden holster. Her movements became automatic, and she aimed for a brief second before firing.  
Her aim was true, and the missile exploded in the air, only yards away from its intended target.  
"Go, go, go!" Lennox yelled, signaling frantically.  
Everyone ran towards the newly-discovered hiding place of the Autobot medic. The four fangirls, who all now had weapons of their own, had them ready in their hands.  
"Cover fire! Cover fire!" Lennox screamed, holding two pistols out and shooting them with deadly accuracy.  
Shouts and groans of pain erupted as both Cemetery Wind and NEST soldiers were hit by bullets. Dawn felt a surge of pain in her chest as she saw several of the NEST soldiers be hit and fall to the ground, unmoving.  
"Keep running!" Both Lennox and Epps ordered at the same time when Dawn started to slow. They pushed her forward, urging her on.  
The four fangirls watched as the medic's hiding place exploded in a shower of sparks and flying metal.  
"Ratchet!" Lindsay shrieked, both out of fangirling and out of terror for him.  
The Autobot medic turned and looked at her.  
"Run! It's Lockdown!"  
His optics grew wide. He was the one who was hunting them down, and everyone feared him.  
A decision was made in his processor, and instead of running immediately, he stayed, but trying to stay out of shot of the Cemetery Wind snipers and Lockdown, who had yet to show himself.  
"Go, go! We'll cover you!" Epps roared to the fangirls.  
"No! You'll die!" Dawn yelled back as she ran.  
He ignored her and continued to shoot at the Cemetery Wind soldiers, his face set with grim determination. The other soldiers had the same look, even as their comrades continued to fall around them.  
Dawn watched fearfully as Epps was hitting his shoulder, but he refused to stop. He continued to shoot, trying to ignore the searing pain in his shoulder.  
He was hit again, but this time, it was fatal. Blood seeped out through his abdomen as he fell.  
"No!" Dawn screamed, tears blurring her vision as he stared in shock. This was not supposed to happen.  
"Come on!" Ratchet yelled, grabbing her attention. She looked for her friends and found them huddling in front of the huge green and yellow Autobot.  
She started to run again, adrenalin coursing through her. She put on a burst of speed and slid the last few feet to them.  
Ratchet moved in front of them, shielding them from the snipers, the shots almost harmlessly bouncing off his armor. He changed into a Hummer H2, and the four fangirls rushed inside.  
As Ratchet raced away, Dawn turned and looked at the battlefield. Bodies lay strewn everywhere, only a select few still moving. Tears rolled down her cheeks as they drove away in silence.  
They stopped where Dawn had parked her truck and climbed inside, turning on the ignition and silently following Ratchet as he continued to drive. Her eyes were glassy, the scene of e battlefield still fresh in her memory, but she didn't hesitate to continue on.

They drove for five hours solid, stopping only to go to the bathroom. For awhile, the three fangirls in the medic's altmode sat in silence, but after about an hour, Natasha, and Stella started to talk quietly. Dawn didn't make a single sound in her truck, only opting to silently follow Ratchet with a mournful look.  
When Ratchet stopped at a gas station, they all immediately hopped out and rushed inside, except for Lindsay. She hesitated to go inside, because of the pain in her hip and now in her back. She was afraid that if she moved too much, she might injure herself more.  
"You should go inside, Lindsay. I will be driving as much as I can in as little time as possible," Ratchet said, his voice slightly sharp.  
"I'm fine," she said, staying in the seat.  
"You do not want me to force you to go inside," he said lowly, not in the mood to deal with it.  
Lindsay shifted in the seat but refused to leave, but Ratchet didn't miss the nurse grimace in pain. He contemplated scanning her without her permission, but decided against it.  
Lindsay flinched when the medic's holoform flickered to life in the now-vacant driver's seat.  
"What is it?" he asked.  
"What?"  
"Do not pretend that I don't know something is wrong. You seem to know who I am, so you should know I am a medic, and your grimace did not escape my notice," he said, his holoform's eyes narrowing slightly.  
"Why should you care? You don't seem to trust us, even though we helped you from Cemetery Wind and that fragging pitspawned glitch of a bounty hunter," she spat, thinking only of Lockdown. Her eyes narrowed in anger as she thought of him.  
"Just because you helped me does not mean I will trust you," he said. "But I will not have an injured femme in my altmode when I can do something about it!"  
"You're not the only one who knows about the medical field, Ratchet. I'm a nurse, if you must know, and I can take care of my own injuries," she said quietly, looking out the window, but secretly, she was slightly glad that he held some amount of concern for her, because she really was afraid she was too injured to move very much now.  
Ratchet could tell her feelings by her body language.  
"Lindsay," he said, his tone turning softer. "Please, show me."  
Had it been anyone else, she would have continued to refuse, but this was Ratchet; the Autobot medic that she had fallen for several years ago. One look at the interior of his altmode and her decision was clear, even though she would never admit it to anyone.  
She huffed, giving in and sagging a little in the seat.  
"Fine," she said in a defeated voice. "But I'm warning you now; if you hurt me more than I already am—"  
"I will not injure you more. If you know who I am, then you should know that I am not the Autobot's Chief Medical Officer for no reason," he said.  
"Yeah, I know. It's just—" she stopped herself before she said anything more. She did not want to have her secret revealed to him just yet. Not when they had just met, and informally at that.  
"Just what?" Ratchet demanded.  
"Nothing. It's not important right now," she said, wanting to change the subject.  
Thankfully for her, he left her comment alone; at least, for now.  
"Are you going to show me or not?" he asked, turning to the matter at hand.  
"Yes, alright?" she said. She twisted around in the seat slowly, careful not to move too fast, until her back was facing his holoform. Even though she was careful not to move too much all at once, she still winced in pain.  
"I will need you to take off this article of clothing before I examine you," he said gruffly, indicating her shirt.  
His attention was focused on her reaction, but didn't see her blush behind her long hair. Still, she was determined to not let it get to her too much. She knew, as a nurse herself, that it was a safety method for her, and was what any professional medical officer would do in the same situation.  
Slowly and carefully, she pulled her dark top off, until she sat in his altmode with just a bra covering the top portion of her body.  
Strong hands touched her back gently, and she froze, sitting straight and rigid.  
"Relax," Ratchet said, his voice now comforting to her, and slowly she did as he said.  
His eyes studied the wounds on her back. There was blood over most of her back. There was a bullet lodged in her lower shoulder, and several lacerations along her back, and there was a particularly deep one where he could see the fragmented remains of a bullet lodged there.  
"It would seem that it exploded on impact," he murmured to himself.  
"And there is my hip as well. I don't mind if you scan me," Lindsay said in a soft voice. She wasn't exactly sure why, but she was already relaxing in the medic's presence.  
Ratchet looked at her with a slightly puzzled expression, even though she couldn't see him, but went back to work.  
"How high of a pain tolerance do you have?" He asked her with a serious expression, even if she couldn't see his face.  
Evidently the seriousness in his expression continued in his tone, because she stilled.  
"Very. I know it doesn't matter, but the others know how high it is," she replied.  
Ratchet nodded. "I wanted to know, because I have not had any access to your human anesthetics in the past few years," he said soberly.  
Lindsay steeled herself. "Just get it over with."  
"Very well," he said.

Dawn, Natasha, and Stella walked into the gas station, Stella immediately heading to the restrooms and Natasha wandering around to find some food. Dawn gave an inaudible sigh. Everything she saw now seemed dismal and dreary, and the darkness that loomed just outside the gas station made it even worse.  
She walked around, looking for nothing in particular.  
As she found herself at the end of the last isle, something in the corner caught her attention. She walked closer and knelt to the ground to get a closer look.  
It was a small rectangular keychain, the design barley visible. Dawn reached out and picked it up, rubbing her thumb across the top to remove the dust and dirt from it.  
There were red flames rising up against a blue background, and Dawn's thoughts drifted to a certain Peterbilt automatically. She flipped the keychain over and gasped in shock.  
An Autobot insignia was deeply engraved in the back, three Cybertronian symbols written underneath.  
As a TF fangirl, she had found and studied what everyone thought the Cybertronian symbols meant, and she could read the symbols with ease, provided that the key she had memorized by heart was accurate. And if she was reading the symbols correctly, the key must have been right.  
Because the three Cybertronian symbols on the back of the keychain spelled her initials.  
"Hey, are you okay?" A female voice asked. Dawn turned and looked behind her.  
The female in question had long, wavy red hair and crystal blue eyes, her thin body showing that there had been times when food was scarce. Once Dawn noticed this, she realized that the woman's hair was actually somewhat dull, and her eyes weren't as bright as she thought they could be. She looked as if she could be in her late twenties, but that could have been because she looked a little haggard.  
Dawn remembered the question she had asked and replied with a distracted, "yes, I'm fine," and stood up from the floor. She quickly hid the keychain in her back pocket, so that the other woman couldn't see it.  
The woman nodded at Dawn's reply.  
"Okay." She held out her hand, and Dawn hesitantly grasped it and shook it.  
"The name's Katherine," she said.  
"And mine is Dawn," said person replied, giving the woman a small but sad smile.  
Katherine smiled back, but didn't miss the pained look in Dawn's eyes, but since they had only just met, she didn't want to pry.  
They let go, and stood there silently in awkward silence, not sure of what to do.  
Thankfully, Natasha came to Dawn's aid, walking up to her friend and putting an arm around her shoulder.  
"Hey, you alright?" she asked.  
"Yeah, just a little out of it," Dawn replied, grateful for the interruption.  
"Okay," Natasha said. "Come on, let's get something to eat before we leave. I think he's starting to get a little impatient."  
"I hate to ask, but who is he?" Katherine asked with a purely innocent look. Nothing but curiosity made her ask the question, but once the question went past her lips, both Dawn and Natasha looked away with an almost guilty look. Natasha looked out the glass doors to the green and yellow Hummer waiting outside, and Katherine followed her gaze.  
Suddenly, her face lit up, and she walked up to the doors and pressed her hands on the cold glass.  
"I never thought I would see one of them again," she whispered to herself.  
Both Dawn's and Natasha's heads shot up, and Stella gave a gasp behind them, having just appeared nearby.  
"What?!" They the three said, panic rising in their voices. They had caught the word 'them'.  
"The Autobots," Katherine whispered quietly. "I thought Cemetery Wind had gotten to them all." She curled her hands into fists. "Why did all this have to happen? The Decepticons have already done enough damage to the lives of humans and Cybertronians alike without the help of Arnold Attigner and his cohorts," she growled.  
Stella, Natasha, and Dawn felt their blood run cold. She knew about the Autobots and Cemetery Wind, and even though she said negative things about Cemetery Wind, you never knew when people would stab you in the back when they had the chance.  
_You can trust her. She is an Autobot sympathizer_, a soft voice in her head told Dawn. She always listened to it, and she had never known it to be wrong. The voice wasn't of herself; she would know if it was, but she trusted it completely.  
Dawn elbowed Natasha in the ribs before she did anything.  
"We can trust her. She's an Autobot sympathizer," Dawn quietly hissed in her ear. Natasha stared at her for a moment before nodding, and whispered the same message to Stella. The four fangirls knew about the voice in Dawn's head, and although none of them understood it, they didn't question it.  
"Well then, Katherine, you should come with us, for the sake of your safety," Natasha said, calmly walking up to her and putting a hand on her arm.  
Katherine's eyes widened. "You mean… that I get to come with you guys and… be with them?" she asked in disbelief.  
Dawn nodded in response.  
Katherine never felt so happy in her life. This was a dream come true! She would finally be able to help them, after so many years of being against them and never being able to redeem herself. Now she finally had a chance to make amends.  
Primus, thank you for this opportunity, for giving me another chance, to apologize and maybe be forgiven, she prayed silently.  
"Do you have anything to get?" Dawn asked.  
"No. I don't have anything," Katherine replied.  
"Nothing at all?" Stella asked in disbelief.  
"No, I have nothing. I have no building I live in. I make my home wherever I can find it. I live on the streets," she said somberly.  
"Well then," Dawn said, "we will have to change that, won't we?" She gave Katherine a sympathetic smile, and hope blossomed in her chest. These people were pure in heart and she was more than grateful. She realized she didn't deserve any of it, but she was beyond happy of the opportunity.

After the four had found things they thought they might need for the next several hours of their journey, they made their way to the idle Hummer, who was just finishing the stitches on the last of the deeper incisions along Lindsay's back. Her back looked much better than when he had first seen it, having been cleaned and treated to. Lindsay had sat there silently the entire time, making no noise. As she had said, she had a high pain tolerance, and while she gritted her teeth at the pain, she made no sound.  
"There. It is done," the Autobot medic said, cleaning his tools and putting them away.  
"Thank you," Lindsay said through clenched teeth, stiffly grabbing her shirt and slowly pulling it over her head.  
Only a few seconds after she put her shirt back on, Ratchet stiffened.  
"She should not be here," he growled. His headlights flashed on, and his engine roared angrily.  
Lindsay saw her friends approach the Hummer slowly, with another person with them.  
"Ratchet, please, I have to apologize for what I did. I-" Lindsay barely heard the other woman say, but the medic cut her off.  
"I will not listen! You betrayed us!" He said angrily through his grill.  
"I know, and I'm sorry. I've realized what I did, and I regret it," the woman said, hanging her head.  
"What? You regret that you couldn't do more damage than you already did, so now you come to us, begging for forgiveness, only to stab us in the back again?" Ratchet spat.  
"No! You don't understand the guilt I have lived with through these years. The shame I had to carry with me, knowing that greed and selfishness fueled those actions. Those actions are a heavy burden on me, and I know that no matter what I do, I will not expect forgiveness from any of you. I have no right to receive it. But I made myself a promise that if I ever got the chance to apologize, I would, even if none of you wouldn't accept it. I am so very, very sorry. If I had any way to bring them back, I would do it in a heartbeat, even if it meant I had to sacrifice myself to do it."  
Before the medic could say anything else, Dawn walked up and laid a hand on the side of the Hummer.  
"Ratchet, please. I know you probably won't understand this, but a voice told me that we could trust her. I don't know what she did, but according to the voice it said that she is an Autobot sympathizer," she said lowly.  
Ratchet said nothing.  
"Please? I have never known the voice to be wrong. I know you can't take my word for it, because you don't trust us, but I needed to tell you. Please?" Dawn pleaded quietly.  
Ratchet was silent for a long time. Finally, he huffed and said, "Fine. But I'm warning you: if she tries anything, the blame will fall on you, not just her."  
"Understood."  
The passenger door swung open, revealing a grimacing Lindsay in the seat.  
"Lindsay, are you okay?" Stella asked.  
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just hurting some and I'm a little stiff, but I'll be fine," she said, opening her eyes. She looked exhausted.  
"You should probably get some rest. You look worn down," Dawn said gently.  
"Yeah, I probably should."  
"We need to leave," came Ratchet's voice from the Hummer's grill.  
Natasha, Stella, Dawn, and Katherine all scrambled around, finally deciding that Natasha and Stella would continue riding with the medic and Lindsay, while Dawn and Katherine would ride in the pickup truck.  
Dawn made her way to the back of her truck and pulled down the tailgate to check the flatbed's contents. Satisfied, she closed the tailgate and walked around to the driver's seat and climbed inside. Katherine was already in the passenger seat.  
"Thank you," Katherine said softly.  
"For what?"  
"For standing up for me, even though I don't deserve it." Katherine's voice became strained. "I really do regret what I did in the past."  
"What did you do?" Dawn wasn't sure what she was going to hear, but she tried to prepare myself. She turned the ignition and after the engine spluttering a couple of times, it roared to life, and she quietly followed the yellow and green Hummer as it turned back on the road.  
Katherine looked away from Dawn, afraid she might turn her away when she told her.  
It took Katherine a couple of minutes to make a decision. She would tell her. She had a right to know, and she realized with growing conviction that it was the right thing to do.  
She gave a sigh and sagged in the seat, a silent tear rolling down her cheek, her voice mournful.  
"I was the one who started Cemetery Wind."


	6. Chapter 6

out of Dawn's mouth before she realized what she had done, and she immediately regretted it.

A stifled sob made her heart pulse painfully. She hated making others feel dejected.

"I'm sorry, Katherine. I didn't mean it to hurt you; it's just— it's just a sore subject, even to me and my friends," Dawn said in a quiet tone.

"No, I understand. It's my fault, and nothing can excuse that," Katherine said with another sob.

"Katherine, please, don't cry." Dawn sighed softly. "If it helps, I believe you. I believe that you truly regret what you did, and recognize the wrong you did. I forgive you."

Katherine sniffed and slowly pulled her head out from her sleeve.

"Really? You really mean that?" she asked in a soft voice, sniffling.

Dawn managed to glance over at the slim face surrounded by red-gold hair, and gave the woman a small, reassuring look.

"I do. And I believe that if the Autobots can tell what you say is what you believe with your heart, then they will understand too," she said.

"Thank you," Katherine whispered.

Dawn couldn't understand why Katherine started Cemetery Wind yet, but she resolved to find out, once the time was right. She let it go for now, hoping that eventually Katherine would tell her herself.

As Dawn continued to drive in silence, her thoughts wandered, drifting from one thought to the next. Considering the specific timeframe they were in, she assumed that they were somewhere at the time when Cade Yeager would be at the old movie theater shown at the beginning of the movie. Her heart did a small flip at being able to see Optimus, but at the same time, she felt pain and sadness for him. The emotional and physical pain he must have went through; the thought made Dawn's heart lurch. It hurt her to just _think _about it.

A silent tear rolled down her cheek as she remembered the NEST soldiers they left behind. They laid their lives down so the fangirls could get to safety; but for whatever reason she did not know. Dawn wished that it had been her who died, rather than them. They would have been more help to the Autobots than the four fangirls.

The deaths of them, combined with the deaths of the Cemetery Wind soldiers she thought she had incapacitated made her sink deeply into a depression. She wanted nothing but to end the suffering, pain, and grief that everyone felt, but she knew that none of it was the Autobot's fault. She knew with all of her heart that they were not to blame. Only the government and Lockdown held that blame, and she made a promise to herself that they would get what they deserved; either by her or someone else.

Cade Yeager slowly walked through the theater, looking at the rusting electrical equipment. His eyes scanned the small room quickly before he made his way through an archway that led into the main part of the theater. Two men followed behind him, another older man staying behind.

Words were occasionally exchanged as Cade sifted through the random things that littered the floor.

"Hey, Lucas! Think fast!" Cade suddenly said, throwing his arm back and letting go of a tapered ball.

The man named Lucas, who stood slightly shorter than the male mechanic, turned and saw the ball. He tried to jump and catch it, but tripped and fell, the football landing beside him.

He quickly got up, grabbing the ball, and attempted to throw the ball back to the muscular mechanic, but instead it hit a large chandelier that hung in the center of the theater.

The crystal chandelier swayed, the metal of the chains groaning, before one of the rusting chains snapped, and it crashed to the floor.

"Great job, Lucas," Cade commented in an sarcastic, accusing tone. He shook his head and turned away, resuming his search for whatever seemed to be of value to him.

That was when he saw the truck.

Once he laid his eyes on it, he knew that the trip there was worth it.

_Time to bring this baby home_, he thought to himself.

Dawn pulled out her cell phone and dialed Stella's number. Putting it to her ear, she waited for an answer.

After the second ring, her friend answered.

"Yes?"

"Stella, I need you to tell him where we need to go. Do you remember where the Yeager farm was located in the movies?"

"Yeah," Stella said slowly.

"He will need to know where we need to go, because I doubt that he is... awake," Dawn said, purposely being vague in case anyone was listening in to their conversation.

"Why are you— oh!" came Stella's reply through the speakers.

"Tell him. We have to get there as soon as possible." Dawn looked at the scenery quickly before turning her attention back to the road and the phone held next to her ear. "We're near, so it won't be long before we're there." Dawn's voice was neutral, but inside, her emotions were in turmoil. She couldn't think about anything without sinking further into her depression, which was impossible, since she couldn't _stop_ thinking about the Autobots.

"Okay, I'll tell him," Stella said, her tone quiet.

The connection was severed, and reluctantly Dawn lowered her cell phone from her ear and ended her end of the call. She slid it into her pocket, while still keeping her eyes on the green and yellow Hummer in front of her. Her eyes never left the back of the search and rescue vehicle, her heart heavy. Not even the thought of Optimus could lift her spirits. The scene her mind came up with when he was ambushed in Mexico haunted her mind constantly, and her depression only increased as they drove closer to the Yeager farm.

XxxxxXXXXxxxxxx

The Hummer and the rusting pickup truck parked in the woods temporarily. The five women got out to the vehicles and gathered together in a circle near the Hummer so he could hear.

"Alright. We'll need to look for a place for Ratchet to stay so his energy signature is hidden from Cemetery Wind's sensors. Once we get that done, we'll figure out what we're going to do with Optimus and Cade's family," Dawn said a quiet, yet authoritative tone.

The other four nodded in agreement.

"A cave would work, but even an old shelter would work for now. But remember: we need to constantly be on our guard. Cemetery Wind and Lockdown will be searching for Ratchet. We need to cover for him and make sure he isn't found," Dawn explained. More nods came from the others.

"Let's go," Natasha said, standing up with new purpose in her eyes. There was pain in her eyes, but determination overruled it.

The rest of the girls stood up and scattered, roaming and searching for a place for the CMO to hide for the time being.

Lindsay was the one who found a small cave for Ratchet. It took her an hour and a half to find it, but when she did, relief filled her.

She pulled out her own cell phone and started to dial a number when a hand was pressed to her mouth, and an arm wrapped around her waist. Pain erupted from her back, and she didn't hesitate to bite the hand that held her mouth in an effort to both free herself and find some release to the pain.

The person yelped in pain and let her go. Lindsay violently pushed away from the person and whirled around, her leg pulled back. She hit the person squarely in the jaw, and they were sent sprawling onto the ground, groaning in pain.

She studied her attacker. The male was tall and muscular, and she could faintly make out tattoos that dotted his chest through his light-colored, thin shirt.

His eyes snapped open, revealing amber-colored eyes filled with malice and venom.

She stepped back, about to turn and run, when another set of arms grabbed her and held her firmly. Her arms were pulled behind her painfully, and she hissed in pain.

She whipped her long ponytail around, hitting the man in the face, temporarily blinding him. He let go, and without a second thought, she bolted.

She only managed to run a few yards when she was tackled. The pain was excruciating, and out of habit, rather than actual pain, a scream was wrenched from her throat.

Quickly, a hand was pressed to her mouth.

"What should we do with her? She's a feisty one," a gruff voice said behind her.

"What we do with all the other ones," another voice answered, it being deep, almost to the point of a growl.

Lindsay did not want to find out what they would do to her. She squirmed frantically, desperate to get out of their grip, but her strength was waning. The fresh wounds on her back were sapping her strength.

A dull thud and a grunt caught her attention, and she stilled.

"Drake—" the man holding her started to say, but Lindsay heard another thud, and the man's visor-like grip on her arms slackened. She felt the man topple to the ground next to her.

"Are you okay?" Lindsay heard a familiar voice asked.

She groaned and managed to heave herself up off the ground. A hand gripped her arm, gently but firmly, and helped her to her feet.

"Why? Why did you help me?" she asked, once she felt that she was steady enough on her feet. She met Ratchet's Holoform's eyes, and found the smallest amount of compassion there.

He didn't have time to answer, as the other four girls came rushing over.

"We heard you scream. Are you alright?" Natasha asked, breathless.

"Yes, I'm fine," Lindsay said, glancing at the Holoform.

The others followed her quick glance, but Dawn interrupted before anyone could ask for details.

"Cade is back at his house," she said lowly. The other fangirls suddenly went completely silent. Katherine and Ratchet, however, did not understand.

"What do you mean?" Katherine asked.

"Optimus was _not _with him. Which leads me to believe that he is already in Cade's barn." Dawn turned to Ratchet. "I don't know what is happening right now. Optimus could have already have shown his true form to Cade, Lucas, and Tessa, but I do not know. Whatever the case, we _need_ to get to him." Her voice was urgent, and although the medic didn't understand _why_, he knew it was a fact. They needed their leader.

"Give me a moment," the medic said, and the holoform disappeared in a shower of electrical sparks, and they heard an engine turn on somewhere else within the dense woods.

A few moments later, the Hummer came into view, and it drove directly into the small cave, conveniently shielding the Autobot from any energy sensors searching for him.

Blue sparks crackled in the air and multiplied, quickly morphing into the CMO's Holoform. He started to walk in the direction of the Yeager farm, not waiting for the girls.

They quickly caught up with him, following him as they made their way towards the barn that they hoped housed the Autobot leader.

Several minutes later, they found themselves at the door of the barn.

"Ratchet, I think it might be best if you go first. After all, if he knows what your Holoform looks like, he won't overreact," Dawn whispered.

"He doesn't overreact," the medic hissed.

"You would, if you went what he went through," she said softly, looking away. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying in vain to make the vision disappear from her mind.

The medic said nothing in response. Quietly and carefully, he gently pushed the door open and slipped inside.

After a few agonizingly silent moments, the door opened a fraction, and Ratchet said in a gruff voice, "You can come in."

Dawn let the others go in first, deciding herself to go in last.

Katherine's shocked gasp did not help to reassure her.

Hesitantly, Dawn walked inside, and her eyes immediately fell on the rusting semi that sat in the middle of the barn. The battle wounds on it made her heart lurch painfully, and as much as she hated it, her eyes swam with unshed tears.

She refused to turn away now, but the pain in her chest was almost unbearable. Still, she managed to find her way to the semi and put a trembling hand on the side of it. Her knees buckled, and she fell to the ground next to the rusting semi. Her heart seemed to break in two at the damage done to him.

"Optimus," she whispered, her voice wavering. The tears that had threatened to come out for so long finally came out, and she cried quietly next to the unmoving semi.

"Why is she crying?" Ratchet asked.

"Dawn cares deeply for Optimus. Just seeing him in this state in a movie completely destroyed her composure for a month. Now, she's seeing it in person, and it's probably a thousand times worse for her. I would feel the same if I was there when Jazz..." Natasha couldn't finish the statement. She turned away and squeezed her eyes shut.

"And it would seem that you have feelings for Jazz." Ratchet's voice was sharp, but he understood the pain. "Is this true for your other friends?"

Natasha looked back at the Holoform. "Yes."

"Who do they have feelings for?" he asked, more out of curiosity.

"Stella likes the twins—"

"Skids and Mudflap?"

"Ew, no, that's just disturbing. No, Sides and Sunny are **_mine_**," Stella said, walking up to them.

Ratchet scoffed. "Why would you want _them_?"

"Because she does, that's why!" Lindsay said, turning away from them and walking up to Dawn and knelt to rub her back as Dawn tried to suppress her tears.

"Why would they do something like this to him? He did nothing wrong. None of them did," Dawn sobbed quietly. She reached up and her hand hovered over the side of the semi hesitantly.

"I'm sorry for what they did to you, Optimus. I would trade places with you in a heartbeat if I could. You're more important than I am; I would unhesitantly take your place." Tears streamed down her face as she let her hand fall, and she rested her forehead on the cool, rusting metal.

The door of the barn opened, and everyone turned to look.

Cade and Lucas stood in the oversized doorway.

"Scrap," Lindsay said.

"Who are you, and what are you doing in my barn?"

It took the six a long time before Cade and Lucas finally believed them. After much debate, they finally decided to tell them the truth, mainly because of Dawn's reasoning. Her eyes were red, but her voice was even and level.

Throughout the entire explanation, Dawn sat next to the rusting flat-nosed semi, leaning against it for support, however little the Autobot in stasis could provide.

"Cade Yeager, Ratchet," Dawn said in a slightly shaky voice, "he needs to be repaired."

She stood up and walked over to Natasha, who put a supportive arm around her.

"I'll be outside if anyone needs me."

She slowly pulled the door open a fraction and slipped through, closing the door behind her.

Dawn slid to the ground and buried her head in her hands. The grief and the regret overwhelmed her; the picture of the dead soldiers burned in her mind.

"Why? Why did all this have to happen?" she wailed. "I should have died, instead of the NEST soldiers! How could I possibly be of help to them?" she cried out to no one in particular.

She felt the skin around her wrist burn, and she clawed at her jacket, trying to get it off. Instead, the AllSpark bracelet fell into her hand. The symbols glowed faintly, and she stared at it with both an awed and confused expression.

_They need you and your friends_, the voice told her. _You have no idea how much they need you_.

"I—I don't understand, why would they need us?"

_You and your friends are special. They need all the help they can get_, the voice replied.

The bracelet stopped glowing, and turned cool to the touch in her hands. Thinking over the brief conversation, she pulled the bracelet back on and wiped away her tears. She took a few calming breaths before standing up, and before she could talk her way out of it, she opened the door and walked back inside.

Only to duck because of a flying missile.

It slammed the door open and flew off.

"That nearly took my head off!" Dawn said, shakily standing up.

The cab groaned and suddenly broke apart, parts crashing into equipment.

"I'm gonna kill you!" were the words that reached Dawn's ears, and she instinctively froze. Her eyes slowly trailed up the tall mech's frame, never missing a single wound, and stopped at the mech's face plates. There was anger in his body language and at the surface of his crystal-blue optics, but underneath Dawn could see agony, emotional pain, and fatigue in the dull glowing orbs. Her heart went out to the hurt Prime, and concern for the Autobot shone through her eyes she barely noticed that Cade was speaking.

Tessa came in, raving about a missile in the family room, then screamed when she saw Optimus. Cade grabbed her and held her, trying to calm her down.

The Prime's weapon was pointed at them, and Lucas cracked under the pressure.

"Call. 9.11!" He yelled, running across the barn and attempting to race out the barn doors. Optimus moved swiftly and struck Lucas in the forehead with the barrel of his weapon, and Lucas was sent sprawling on the floor.

"Stop! Everyone, just stop. He's not going to hurt us," Dawn heard Cade say. Optimus shifted, still holding his gun at us.

"Where am I?" he asked.

"My name is Cade Yeager, your at my house, in my barn. I found you at a theater and brought you back here. We took a missile out of you; you were very lucky to have survived."

"Cade, I am in your debt," Optimus said. He looked away, and his tone grew urgent. "My Autobots, I need to find them. I need to go to them—" part of the side of his helm sparked and fell off, Energon seeping from the wound. Dawn's heart felt broken to see him in such a state, and she stepped closer, but he met her eyes with wariness and hostility. Hurt, she stepped back again, but refused to give up on him. She wouldn't, and couldn't.

"My Autobots, they can repair me. I must go to them," he said again, trying to stand up, but with a groan, he found that he couldn't.

"You can't, not in the state your in," Cade argued. He slowly walked up and picked up his head finial. "How about me instead?"

"You would do that?" Optimus asked in disbelief, his wariness still somewhat evident. Cade nodded.

Optimus finally submitted, and Cade set right to work. He told the six newcomers to make themselves useful, and everyone scattered, grabbing tools and parts that Cade asked for.

Ratchet's Holoform and Dawn were the only ones who dared to approach the Prime, besides Cade, who was already busy repairing him.

"Optimus," Ratchet said, and the Autobot's helm snapped up.

"Ratchet?"

"Yes, it's me."

"How did you—"

The medic looked at Dawn, then at the other girls before turning back to the injured Prime.

"They saved me from my death."

Dawn had to look away, because of the image of the NEST soldiers burned in her mind. Her stress level skyrocketed, and she stumbled back, grabbing a nearby table to steady herself. Optimus's and Ratchet's attention turned to her, and Ratchet subconsciously scanned her form.

"Your stress-levels are elevated, Dawn," the CMO said.

"I know, I'll be fine in a minute," she rasped, breathing deeply to keep her composure.

"No, you won't be. What is wrong?"

Dawn breathed deeply a few more times before she managed to speak.

"I can't... handle the burden. It's all my fault!" she suddenly wailed, falling to her knees on the floor. She didn't really care anymore if Optimus saw; the pain and grief was too much. "I can't deal with the fact that I killed those Cemetery Wind soldiers! And I should have been the one who died, not... not..." A few tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Not who?" Optimus asked, finally addressing Dawn directly. She hesitantly met his optics with her own tear-filled eyes.

"The NEST soldiers," she whispered. "I-I watched them die. Why did they have to sacrifice themselves for us? What use are we to your cause?" She reached up and wiped away her offending tears angrily.

Ratchet suddenly grabbed Dawn's wrist and studied it.

"Where do you get that?" he asked, indicating to her bracelet.

Her AllSpark fragment bracelet.

"I... Stella and I bought them at a store. There were several of them, and none of them looked very real, until..."

"Until what?" Ratchet was getting impatient.

"Until we got home. I saw something right before everything changed. I saw this weird... light, and then it happened. What was left of our stuff looked so real," Dawn said, her grief quickly forgotten. She reached up and patted her chest, slightly relieved when she felt a familiar lump.

"I also have this," she said, pulling the AllSpark fragment necklace out from underneath her jacket.

The two stared at it for a moment, then looked at each other. An unspoken conversation went between them.

"What is it?" Dawn asked, sniffing.

"We could use them to brig back Jazz, Arcee, Chromia, and Elita 1. I'm not sure about Ironhide, but it could work," Ratchet said, rubbing his chin.

"But what about the others?" Dawn asked.

"The others...?" Optimus asked, lost.

Dawn gave him a worried look. "You don't know yet..." She looked at him mournfully, her eyes misting again.

"The others are gone. They're offline." A tear rolled down her cheek.

It took a minute for the information to sink in.

"WHAT?!" Ratchet roared, grabbing Dawn's jacket and shaking her roughly. "You mean to tell me that they're dead, and you said nothing about it?!"

"Would you have believed me if I told you when we first met?" she asked quietly, more tears trailing down my face.

"Ratchet," Optimus said in a low growl.

He let go of her, and she fell to the ground with a heavy thud. Dawn buried her face in her hands.

"If I could bring them back, I would. I would die if it would bring them all back; if it could end your civil war."

"Why? So you can just force us off your planet?" Ratchet scoffed.

"No! Not all of us are poisoned by the false beliefs that are spread by the government and Cemetery Wind. I know it won't mean anything to you anymore, but I got this because I care. I would lay down my life if it would give you all another day to live. I would rather die than watch you die, living with the conviction that I could have done something about it." She sniffed and pulled off her jacket, then pulling her sleeve up to show a blue Autobot insignia on her shoulder, rising out of red flames. Optimus's colors.

Dawn pulled out another necklace, and the Autobot pendant glinted in the light as it twirled in the air.

"I know I can't convince you," she sniffed, "but I can show you what little proof I have. And I promise, I will help you in this war until my last dying breath." Her tone held such conviction, and through the unshed tears the two Cybertronians could see a fierce determination burning within her. She meant every word she said; she would sacrifice her life for them without a second thought.

Ratchet's and Optimus's anger melted away a small fraction. They didn't, and couldn't, trust any human yet, but the emotion in her voice and in her eyes was more than enough of a start.


	7. Chapter 7

Dawn always worked near Optimus, as a reassurance that he was real and still online. She needed the confirmation.

Strangely, everyone worked in near-silence, Optimus, Ratchet, and occasionally Cade speaking in low voices as they repaired the injured Prime. He was still wary, but his hesitancy ceased when it was just him and the CMO. Dawn could still see the pain and grief in the Prime's optics, and her heart ached painfully just seeing it. She wished with all of her heart to make his suffering and seemingly endless pain go away, but she didn't want to hurt him more, or lose what little trust she had gained from him.

After a while, Ratchet and Cade left for a short break. Dawn, seeing her opportunity, slowly approached the Prime so as not to startle him.

"Optimus?" she asked quietly.

His helm rose, and he met her eyes with hesitancy. Her eyes threatened to spill over with tears yet again, just seeing the magnitude of raw grief and pain there, and she even knew that he was trying to hide it.

"Are you going to be okay?" she asked in a quiet voice, her concern evident.

He shifted, surprised by her question. He nodded silently to her question.

Dawn took a small step closer, but upon seeing the sudden fear in his face plates, she hurriedly stepped back.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to," she said in a rush, her anxiety dominant. Dawn looked into Optimus's optics with upset but questioning eyes.

He couldn't seem to pull his optics from hers. He was genuinely shocked that he saw worry and sadness in her liquid brown-gold eyes.

Movement caught his optics, and he tore his attention away from Dawn and towards the movement.

Once it registered in his slurring processor what he was seeing, his reaction was not positive.

He scrambled back, searching for his gun fervently. Finding it, he grasped it and pointed it straight at Katherine, anger and pain glowing in his eyes.

"Don't come any closer," he growled at Katherine, his fear still evident.

Dawn reacted instantly. Her eyes widening, she looked behind, and seeing the red-haired woman, she made a split-second decision.

Without hesitation, her own life out of the question, she jumped in front of Katherine and shielded her from the Prime's gun, now aimed directly at her.

He seemed to slowly process her action, and when he did, he looked at her in confusion, his optics still showing wariness.

"Optimus, please, she regrets what she did. Think of Drift," Dawn said in a slightly wavering voice, but still managed to keep her composer as she looked directly into his optics.

Her words sunk in deeply, and Dawn watched as he slowly lowered the gun. She could tell he still didn't trust anyone, especially not Katherine, but what she didn't know was that he still felt too weak to do very much of anything, which was why he complied.

Dawn slowly moved away from Katherine and inched her way to Optimus. She stopped when he started to shift away from her.

"How do you know about Drift?" he rasped searching her eyes.

Dawn felt her heart start to beat rapidly. She couldn't explain what happened; she only just met him, and and if she told him, what little trust he had for her would be crushed because of the absurdity of it.

The was saved from her predicament when Natasha rushed in, out of breath and her eyes wide.

"Th-they're h-here..." she gasped.

"Who?" Dawn asked, her head cocking to the side in confusion.

"C-Cemetary... Wind..." Natasha wheezed, trying in vain to catch her breath.

Once she heard those words, anger boiled Dawn's blood and filled her with rage. She clenched her fists, her knuckles turning white, and she bolted towards the door, but Lindsay barred her way.

"Let me _**go**_!" Dawn yelled, thrashing in Lindsay's arms, but her grip was like a visor.

"Dawn, listen to reason. We have to get Optimus and Ratchet to safety first," Lindsay said, trying to calm the enraged female. Dawn only thrashed around harder.

"I don't care! They _touched_ him! They _hurt_ him! I'm going to **make them pay**!" she roared, almost managing to worm her way out of Lindsay's grip.

"Optimus, you need to hide. You can't let them find you," Lindsay said, struggling to prevent Dawn from going out the barn doors.

The Prime nodded slowly and did as she said. Soon, it seemed that it was only Lindsay and Dawn were the only ones in the barn.

A shrill scream pierced through the air nearby, and Dawn suddenly stilled. She knew the scream.

Stella.

"Let me go!" came Stella's shriek, and Dawn heard a few grunts and someone falling to the ground. Shouts were heard, and then Stella's thrashing, as Dawn assumed, as she was being dragged away.

"No," Dawn whispered. "We have to help-"

That was when she saw a laser on her chest.

"Scrap," she muttered.

Dawn struggled in their grip. Three men had to forcefully carry her, and she continuously kicked and screamed against them, making their progress very slow. She even tried to bite at them, but she had her ears boxed at her efforts.

They finally managed to carry her to where the rest were, and they threw her to the ground. She landed on her side and arm awkwardly, and a sickening sound coming from her arm. Dawn cried out, swiftly turning onto her back and gingerly cradling her injured arm. She glared at the face that loomed above her's. Savoy.

Dawn's good arm shot out and clawed at his throat, but he moved back before she could get a grip around his throat. He narrowed his eyes at her and reached out, grabbing the front of her shirt and jerking her to her feet.

Two soldiers came up behind her and grabbed her arms, holding her in place. She hissed violently at the pain and tried to pull away, but their grip just tightened on her arms, so she stilled.

Savoy walked up to her calmly, keeping her glaring eye contact.

"I'm only going to ask you once. Where is Optimus Prime and his medic?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," Lindsay growled from where she lay on the ground. The soldier behind her quickly leaned forward ad pushed the barrel of his gun into her head, and Lindsay took the message and closed her mouth, but her eyes were blazing.

"Savoy, please, let them go. They mean nothing to you," Katherine pleaded. Savoy barely batted an eyelid at her.

The soldier behind her and cocked his gun. "Shut up, traitor," he growled lowly.

"You think I'm being a traitor? I created Cemetery Wind so we could hunt down the Decepticons! You took it to the next level and started to hunt the Autobots, who did nothing to deserve this! You're the ones who are the traitors!" she yelled, suddenly being brave.

A shot rang out, and everyone flinched. Dawn was the first one to look.

A bullet was lodged in the ground, only inches away from Katherine's head. She looked at the bullet in fear and quickly became silent.

Savoy turned back to Dawn.

"Tell me where they are, and I'll let you and your friends go," he said softly.

"Even if I did know, I wouldn't tell you," Dawn said, her eyes staring into his in defiance. "I would rather die than betray them."

"And you would betray your own race?"

"What have the Autobots ever done to deserve this? This mindless slaughter of the very Cybertronians who fought alongside us, even going so far as to help us with our own problems within our own race." Dawn shook her head in disgust, her suppressed rage evident. "I gladly reject my own race, because I know what I believe in is right. You will _never_ take that away from me."

Savoy turned and took a step away before whirling around and slapping Dawn's cheek with the back of his hand sharply.

Dawn's head whipped away, her teeth clenched so hard her jaw hurt, but she made no sound as she slowly looked back at him, her eyes ablaze even though tears swam in her vision.

"I hope you get what you deserve," she rasped, spitting out blood from her mouth. She not only meant it towards Savoy, but also at Attigner, who was, no doubt, listening to their conversation.

Savoy turned and started to walk away.

"Shoot her. And the daughter," he said over his shoulder.

Tessa's sobbing filled Dawn's ears. The soldier behind Dawn pushed her to the ground, and she hears him cock his gun and aim. She didn't retaliate; she closed her eyes and accepted her end. She knew that the Autobots were far more important than her, and she was willing to die for them.

Without warning, the barn exploded, and guns were fired.

"I am _here_!" Dawn heard Optimus roar, shooting at the Cemetery Wind soldiers. Her eyes snapped open, and her fighting skills took over.

She jumped to her feet, and using the distraction, she whirled around and thrust her knee harshly between the soldier's legs. He groaned, doubling over, but Dawn wasn't finished.

Using her good arm, she exercised a quick uppercut into his gut, followed by a well-placed punch to his jaw, effectively dislocating it. Finally, she whirled around, and using her momentum, she thrust out her leg and struck the man's chest, cracking several ribs.

He fell to the ground with a dull thud, groaning, blood at the corner of his mouth.

"Cade, run! They're going to kill you!" Optimus roared, continuing to shoot as he ran away from the soldiers.

A vehicle crashed through the other side of the barn, speeding around the soldiers and making its way towards the fangirls and Katherine. Dawn saw Lucas, Cade, and Tessa running away and assumed that they would be alright for now.

The vehicle that raced towards the girls, a Hummer, quickly drove up to them, its passenger door opening.

"Get in. One of you will have to get in the back," Ratchet ordered.

They did so immediately, but Dawn was the last one who hesitated.

"My truck! I need-"

"They're in the back. I moved them in case something happened and we needed to leave quickly. Now get in!"

With that, Dawn leaped into the back, relieved to find her weapons neatly stacked in a corner.

The engine roared, and Ratchet wasted no time, immediately racing away, following Optimus, who had changed forms and began driving off with Cemetery Wind on his tailpipe.

Dawn saw other vehicles chasing Ratchet, along with another car that joined them. She recognized the other car as Shane's, and she saw Cade, Lucas, and Tessa climb in before Shane drove off in a cloud of dust.

Ratchet raced over the uneven terrain, and he drove over a small ditch that rocked the entire vehicle. Everyone else was fine, except for Dawn. She was tossed to the other side of the Hummer, her injured shoulder and arm slamming into the wall.

She cried out, tears swimming in her eyes. She crumpled to the floor, cradling her arm. She managed to open her eyes and look down.

Blood was soaking her jacket sleeve and covering her other hand.

Her heart raced, and she tried to calm down, but the constant vigorous jostling of the Hummer made it even more difficult. Now she wished someone was in the back with her, rather than crammed into the front of the Hummer.

"Ratchet," she managed to choke out, a moan escaping her lips at the pain.

"What is it?" he growled impatiently.

Her breathing became fast and shallow, and it didn't help her at all.

"Help me!" she barely managed to scream, the pain making her see stars.

"I can't tend to you and drive at the same time!" he yelled.

Dawn heard gunshots, and Ratchet dodged and weaved to avoid them.

"You bastards, quit shooting!" she screamed, knowing it was useless because they couldn't hear her, but it made her feel slightly better, although it didn't take the pain away.

Ratchet gunned his engine even more, and the Cemetery Wind vehicles were soon left behind. They showed no sign of following, but the CMO didn't take any chances. He continued to drive away, while at the same time, keeping Optimus in his sights.

Dawn managed to pull herself to her feet and look out the windows of the back door. She gasped, mainly out of fear.

She watched as Optimus fought against Lockdown, her heart hammering against her rib cage.

She cringed and nearly screamed again when she saw Lockdown hit Optimus. Her fear for his safety overtook her rational sense, and she forced her way out of the Hummer's back doors. Grabbing a weapon, she rushed out and tumbled onto the pavement. Thankfully, she did not land on her injured arm, and as soon as she found herself on the ground, she was on her feet with her weapon in hand.

She ran towards the two Cybertronians fighting, and dropping to her stomach, she aimed her rifle. Her finger hovered over the trigger as she aimed and waited for the right moment.

The opportunity presented itself only moments after she aimed. Without hesitation, her jaw set and her eyes narrowed in suppressed anger, she pulled the trigger.

The bullet sped out of the chamber at a high velocity, and Dawn's aim was true.

It hit the bounty hunter's vulnerable optic, and he roared in pain, clawing at his optics to get the offending object out.

Optimus, immediately taking advantage of Lockdown's current state, grabbed the end of a crane's hook and latched it firmly onto the bounty hunter and pushed him off the building.

The silver-grey mech struggled to climb back up onto the top of the building for a few moments, but Optimus was already making his way off the building.

For a moment, he locked optics with Dawn, and she could have sworn she saw a small sliver of gratitude in his crystalline blue optics. Then he turned his attention away and continued to run.

Dawn scrambled to her feet, but as soon as she did, another wave of pain traveled up through her arm. She crumpled to the ground, groaning and she tried to get up again. Her eyes narrowed into slits, she fought against the pain and managed to heave herself up, and with her rifle strapped onto her back, she half-stumbled, half-ran away from the scene.

She heard an engine roar behind her, and she looked back and saw Shane's car before it stopped. A semi's horn sounded in front of her, and she glanced over her shoulder and saw Optimus in his evasion mode before she turned her attention back to Shane's car. He, Cade, Tessa, and Lucas climbed out of the car and started to run away, but Lucas stayed by the car, frantically trying to free his leg.

"Wait! My foot - it's stuck!" he yelled, but a familiar figure appeared on the top of one of the buildings. He threw something, and Dawn's eyes widened.

"Run!" she screamed, along with Cade.

Her pain suddenly forgotten, she ran for her life, nearly tripping over her own feet as she ran.

She skidded to a stop where Optimus was, and she made the mistake of looking back.

She watched, horrified, as Lucas was caught in the blast of the Seed-like grenade that Lockdown had thrown.

"No," she whispered, taking a single step forward.

Forcing herself to look away, she saw the Yeagers and Shane running up to Optimus, and Cade stopped at Dawn's side and opened the passenger door. He looked back and saw the remains of Lucas with his own horrified expression on his face.

Dawn barely heard Shane telling them to get inside the semi, and Cade grabbed her shoulder gently to get her attention.

"Let's go," he said.

He moved out of the way so Dawn could climb inside, and she did just that, taking care not to use her injured arm.

She climbed into the sleeper cabin and watched in a daze as the others climbed inside as well, not realizing that she took off the rifle and laid it next to her as she watched

As soon as the doors were closed, Optimus drove away, seemingly eager to get away from the scene.

Dawn lay down in the sleeper cab, turned away from the others and resting on her good arm, and silently let a few hot tears trail down her dusty cheeks before falling into a fitful sleep.

Nightmares plagued her sleep constantly, and she tossed and turned restlessly, moaning softly and flinching whenever she moved her injured arm. The blood on her jacket sleeve had long-since dried, but her arm was still far from healed.

After several hours of nearly silent driving, Optimus finally pulled off the road and drove into the small, overrun parking lot of an abandoned gas station.

When he stopped, Cade turned and gently shook Dawn awake. She moaned softly and shrugged his hand off.

Cade shook her harder, and Dawn's eyes snapped open and she had to bite back a small scream. Her good arm shot out and grabbed his wrist and held it away from her for a second before letting go. She put a careful hand on her arm, as if to suppress the pain, and she winced when her hand touched the injured area.

Tessa and Shane had already made their way out of the cab, so it was only Dawn and Cade, along with Optimus, who was the vehicle they were in.

Cade saw her wince, and he put a gentle hand on her good shoulder.

"You need to have your arm looked at," he said gently.

Dawn slowly nodded. "I think that is a good idea," she rasped. She sat up, and despite Cade quiet chiding, she climbed out of the cab by herself, followed by Cade. She tried to hide the fact that her hands were shaking by grasping the cab tightly as she made her way to the ground.

As soon as their feet hit the pavement, the cab broke apart until Optimus knelt in front of them.

"I am sorry for your loss," he said in a quiet voice to Cade, Tessa, and Lucas. "I will scout ahead to make sure no one is following us."

Before he changed forms, he met Dawn's eyes briefly. He saw both the emotional and physical pain she suppressed, and she stood up straighter when he looked into her eyes. Despite the pain, Optimus saw grim determination, and he realized that he also had once held those same feelings deep within him.

Dawn saw him searching her eyes, and she didn't want to hide anything. She desperately wanted to gain his trust, but she knew that she couldn't push it. She didn't want to push him away by doing that.

Ratchet pulled up beside Optimus and let the girls out. As soon as they were out of his vehicle mode, he changed forms and looked at Optimus with a hint of worry, and he had every right to. He still wasn't fully repaired, and he saw, as the CMO he was, that his wounds were sapping his strength.

"Ratchet, tend to her. She is wounded," Optimus said, indicating to Dawn with a slight nod of his helm before he transformed back into the alt mode and driving off, leaving Ratchet no chance to argue.

Dawn watched as he drove away with a sad, longing look. She wished she could help him in some way, but only time would tell if she would ever get such an opportunity.

The girls rushed up to her and surrounded her.

"What did he mean?" came the echoing question from them.

Dawn couldn't explain, both because she wasn't sure what was wrong with her arm, and also because Ratchet gave her no time to even say, "I don't know."

"I need everyone to move," he said gruffly. No one argued; they immediately moved away, allowing Ratchet access to Dawn.

He changed forms, and as soon as he did, his holoform flickered to life, and he walked up to Dawn. He noticed her holding her arm gingerly, and he looked back up and met her gaze.

"May I?" he asked in a quieter voice, which surprised everyone, since before then he had always acted gruff towards them, minus Lindsay, which no one else knew about.

Dawn nodded and removed her hand, and Ratchet reached towards her and gently pulled up her sleeve. He took note that it was covered in dry blood, and he knew that that was already a warning sign.

She suddenly hissed in pain and flinched, and Ratchet paused and looked into her eyes.

"Sorry," she said, hesitantly opening her eyes and meeting his.

He gave her a few moments to adjust, then continued, more conscious of her pain. He saw her grimacing, her eyes closed, but she made no sound, so he continued to pull up her sleeve.

After several long minutes, her injured lower arm was exposed. Several long gashes and deep puncture wounds wrapped around her arm, and he recognized where they came from. He cursed his hastiness. He had known his surgical instrument containers needed to be replaced, and now Dawn had to pay for his lack of responsibility. In truth, he was ashamed for his actions.

"I suggest you sit down, Dawn," he said in a quiet voice, using her name for the first time.

"Where do you suggest I sit?" she asked, trusting Ratchet.

"Somewhere close to the ground, in case you fall," he said.

Dawn looked at him, pondering what he said, but instead of asking, all she said was, "I trust you, Ratchet."

The CMO nodded, but inside he felt guilty. Would she still trust him when she found out that it was his fault this happened to her?

He followed her to a low picnic table that sat in the grass. She sat down on the top of it and looked at Ratchet expectantly.

He took a deep breath. He never thought that human trust would mean so much to him.

"Do you know what caused this?" he asked.

"Well, I do know that when the soldiers threw me to the ground, I landed on my arm, and I think that might have broken it," she said. "I'm not sure about the rest of it, though." He nodded, looking out into the distance.

"I believe I had a part in that," he said begrudgingly.

Her focus snapped towards him, and she frowned. "What? What do you mean?"

Ratchet internally cringed.

"It was my irresponsibility that caused this. I knew that I needed to replace my surgical tool containers, but Cemetery Wind made it difficult. After a while, I began to think that it unimportant, since none of us could trust anyone anymore-"

"Ratchet," Dawn said sharply, attracting his attention. He looked at her, and was surprised when he didn't find anger or resentment.

"It's alright. I understand. It wasn't your fault, and I couldn't ask for you to do something like that." She laid her good hand on his holoform's arm and gave him a small, sad smile.

He nodded, and his usual gruff demeanor returned. His vehicle form drove up, and once it stopped, he turned and walked to the back of the Hummer and climbed inside.

A small feeling of comfort settled on Dawn's chest and seemed to lift a tiny fraction of the weight off of her shoulders.

When Ratchet returned with the medical supplies he needed, he noticed how she seemed to hold herself a little taller. It was only minuscule, but still he noticed it. He walked up to her and laid his supplies on the table.

"Do you mind if I scan you?" he asked, busying himself with his supplies.

"No," Dawn said.

He nodded and did so.

When a Cybertronian scans another being, it does not come from its artificial body, the holoform. Instead, it comes from the Cybertronian itself, whatever form it is in.

When the CMO was done scanning, he looked at Dawn again.

"Dawn," he said, attracting her attention. She looked up and met his eyes.

"Your arm is not broken." He received a relieved sigh from the female.

"However, your arm is dislocated."

She blinked a few times before she understood. She sighed.

"Where?" she asked.

"Your ulna and radius have dislocated from your humerus," Ratchet said in a somber tone.

Dawn gave him a very worried look, a question on her lips.

"I don't know if you will lose your arm. The dislocation is serious enough, but I am not sure if it is to the point where amputation will have to occur," the medic said before she could ask.

She slowly let out a ragged breath. "Okay. Okay. Just do what you have to do," she said eventually.

"There's a problem," the CMO said.

Dawn groaned. "What is it?"

"I don't have any anesthetics, and I will have to put it back in place."

Dawn paled.

"I have to do it, otherwise the chance of amputation is inevitable," he said, bracing himself with one hand on the picnic table and looking into her eyes, his electric blue eyes set with determination.

She leaned back and stared into the sky. Ratchet waited for her reply.

"Fine," she sighed eventually. She looked back at him, and she realized her hand was shaking. She laid the flat of her palm on the table to keep it from showing, but Ratchet saw.

"Don't worry. I took care of your friend Lindsay, and I will do the same for you," he said, trying to reassure her.

Dawn gave a nervous laugh. "She's the one with the highest pain tolerance," she said, running her hand through her long hair. "Wait, you took care of her? What was wrong?"

"She had several wounds on her back, and she let me take care of them by stitching them up," he said. "Enough about my previous patients. We need to take care of your arm."

He moved away and stood upright, crossing his arms.

"I will need you to lay down," he instructed.

Dawn kicked her legs up on top of the table and leaned back until her back was resting against the cool wood of the table top.

Ratchet moved to her side and grasped her hand and wrist with his own large artificial hand, and he placed his other hand underneath her injured elbow, but hesitated.

"Are you ready?" he asked.

"No," she said truthfully, "but there's no getting out of this, is there?"

Ratchet shook his head, the corners of his mouth twitching ever so slightly.

"Then I guess I'm as ready as I'll ever be, at least without anesthetics." Dawn's heart beat rapidly, but she tried to stay as calm as possible. "Will it be better if someone helped? In case something happened?"

The CMO thought for a moment. "I think that is a good idea," he said.

Dawn called for Lindsay, and she rushed over.

"What is it?" she asked, glancing at Dawn and Ratchet in confusion. Then she noticed Dawn's arm.

"Primus, what happened to you?" she said, worry creasing her brow.

"That would be partially my fault," Ratchet growled quietly.

The nurse looked at him as if he had suddenly said he was a Decepticon. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"I would have thought that a Chief Medical Officer would have made sure everything was in proper order and functioning as they should, regardless of circumstances. Especially one who saw most of the war on Cybertron," she said, her distaste evident.

"Lindsay! That was uncalled for!" Dawn said, using her authoritative tone, mainly out of habit.

Ratchet's holoform straightened to his full height, which was several inches above Lindsay.

"I'll have you know that while you were lazying around somewhere, I was desperately trying to stay online! So if your going to pull rank, then you better know where your's is in relation to mine," he said in a quiet but threatening tone. The quietness of his voice was the scariest part, because if he had yelled, that would probably be the end of it, but his tone promised more to come. If he didn't forgive her first.

"Ratchet, please," Dawn said, using her good arm and grabbing his own muscular arm. "Every minute we waste another Autobot is slaughtered by those inhumane monsters."

The CMO eventually nodded and turned back to her, refusing to speak to Lindsay. He re-placed his hands on her wrist and her arm.

Lindsay silently moved to the other side and held her other arm down so she couldn't hurt herself or anyone else nearby.

"Dawn?"

She looked at Lindsay.

"Relax, okay? The pain won't last as long if you do that."

"Alright," she said, nodding her head. She did so, but hesitantly.

As soon as she did, Ratchet pulled on her wrist, pushing her elbow up. She felt her ulna and radius move back into place, grazing against the bundle of nerves and veins that resided in her elbow.

She screamed in agony, tears gathering in her vision. The raw pain made her arm feel like it was being carved out with a blunt, searing-hot spoon.

Dawn writhed on the table, trying to free herself of the intense pain. Her back arched, and she tried to kick her legs, but Lindsay scrambled onto the top of the table and held her legs still by putting her weight on them.

Dawn's chest heaved and strings of Cybertronian curses slipped between her lips in gasps, but she did not scream again.

Slowly, her body started to relax, exhausted because of her reaction to the pain. Her breath still came in ragged gasps, but she lay limp on the table, strands of hair sticking to her forehead. A quiet moan escaped her lips, her eyes shut and her head lolling.

Lindsay waited a few seconds, then let go of Dawn and studied her face. She reached over and gently brushed the stray strings of hair back from her face.

Ratchet watched her from the other side of the table. He was still cross with her, but he noticed the tenderness she gave Dawn and the anger that once was in her eyes was replaced with underlying concern and sadness.

"Ratchet, I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier. I was being rash and didn't think about what was saying. I understand that it wasn't your fault, and I was too upset to think straight then." Lindsay looked up and at the medic's holoform. He saw regret in her eyes, even though she stood upright with her shoulders held back.

Not knowing what to say, he just nodded, accepting her apology.

The smallest of smiles creeped onto her face, which showed her high cheekbones even more.

Her attention turned back to Dawn when she moaned again, turning her head and frowning, her eyes still closed.

Ratchet reached for a lightweight arm sling and started to place her arm in the sling, but he paused when Lindsay walked around to his side and started to help him with the straps.

He continued to place Dawn's arm in the sling, while Lindsay finished with the Velcro straps.

When they were done, Lindsay looked at Ratchet's holoform and smiled softly and sadly.

"You know, underneath that gruff mech exterior, I know that you care." She moved a little closer towards him and put a hand on his arm. "I truly am sorry for being angry with you earlier. I know the feeling you probably felt when you realized that part of it was your fault. I've felt it before." She gave him a sad look before she quietly walked away.

The CMO tried to not believe what she said, mainly out of stubbornness, but found it extremely hard to do so.

"Please tell me that I didn't hurt anyone," a rasping voice said.

Ratchet turned his attention to Dawn, who had her uninjured arm gingerly holding her other arm, her eyes closed shut. She grimaced when pain shot through her arm.

"You were not too difficult for Lindsay and I to handle," he said, crossing his arms.

An engine roared behind them, and Dawn looked around Ratchet's holoform, and he saw her face light up despite the pain.

Optimus was back.

The semi parked several yards away, and the engine cut off. Ratchet received a private comm from the Prime, to which he quickly answered.

A brief conversation ensued, which actually lasted only a few seconds due to their almost-supersonic processor speed. Ratchet turned back to Dawn.

"Optimus would like to talk to you," he said. The holoform then proceeded to disintegrate, and the Hummer drove off to another part of the abandoned gas station.

As soon as the Hummer's tailpipe disappeared, the paint-stripped semi broke apart, revealing Optimus's bipedal form. Dawn watched the process with wide eyes, out of wonder and curiosity, rather than fear.

The Prime knelt in front of the human, his joints hissing.

"You wanted to speak to me?" Dawn asked, her arm still throbbing, but she ignored it.

The mech nodded ever so slightly.

"I wanted to thank you for what you did earlier."

Dawn's heart swelled a little, and Optimus saw that a fraction of the pain her eyes emanated was replaced by a sense of gladness, along with a tiny shred of pride.

"I believe in you," she said simply, although she knew in her heart there were so many more reasons to her actions than that. "And whatever bounty Lockdown has on your helm doesn't matter to me."

The Prime shifted and looked away to the sunset. After a few moments, he stood up again, re-attracting the female's attention.

"Do not make me regret the _small_ amount of trust I have in you," the mech said in a low growl before changing back to his alt mode.

Dawn slid off the table with a grimace, pain shooting up her arm. She walked a little closer to the semi and spoke in a low tone, a fierce determination in her eyes.

"I didn't when I was about to die."

With that, she walked off towards the gas station, leaving the Prime to stay in the field as the sun slowly set.


	8. Chapter 8

Because of the excruciating pain Dawn had endured when Ratchet and Lindsay put her elbow back in place, she was extremely exhausted and slept for a solid fifteen hours, not waking up even once. She missed the argument between Tessa and Shane, and Cade, even though she had slept on the counter straight across from them.

She awoke around one in the morning. It was still dark out, but it didn't concern her.

She quietly searched for her jacket in the dark, and when she found it, she noticed that it had somehow been washed, because the dried blood on the sleeve was not there anymore. She slipped it on carefully, trying not to move her arm too much, and silently walked outside.

The cool night air fell over her in an almost soothing way. Dawn walked barefoot through the gravel and into the grass, barely even noticing the small stones under her feet.

The dark sihlouette of a Mack semi loomed a few yards away, and she stopped. She didn't want to disturb the mech's recharge, so she quietly turned and started to slowly walk the other way.

"I can hear you," a deep voice said quietly, emanating from the still semi. Dawn stopped.

"I didn't mean to disturb your recharge," she said.

"You didn't."

Dawn turned and looked at the semi. "You haven't been able to recharge at all, haven't you?" she asked, her voice soft.

A quiet sigh came from the Mack. "No."

Dawn nodded slightly in understanding. "I know how you feel. If it weren't for the fact that my elbow had to be put back in place, I wouldn't have been able to sleep, either." The deaths of the Cemetery Wind and NEST soldiers still weighed heavily on her mind.

Optimus was silent. Dawn shifted on her feet slightly, her bare feet becoming cold. After a moment of thinking, she decided to sit down on the grass, cross-legged.

She was occupying herself by pulling up small tufts of grass when Optimus spoke again.

"How did you know about Drift?" he asked, his voice laced with suspicion.

Dawn sighed. "I knew that you would ask at some point." Her voice was sad and quiet. "I know you won't believe me, but I also know you deserve to know the truth, even if it sounds impossible."

Dawn told him what happened: going to the store, talking to Natasha, the flash of light that only she had seen, the disappearance of their belongings pertaining to the Transformers franchise with only a select few remaining, then calling Lindsay.

"...and from the dimension I come from, you and all of the others exist in this time frame in the movie called 'Transformers: Age of Exctinction'. Lindsay, Natasha, Stella, and I are all what others would call 'fangirls' of you and the others. We have been supporters of the Autobot faction since we were first introduced to the franchise."

Optimus was completely silent throughout the entire explanation. Dawn waited quietly in the silence that followed the end of her explanation.

After a few minutes of silence Dawn finally spoke.

"You don't believe me."

Another sigh came from the semi. "I do not know what to believe anymore," he murmured in a somber tone.

Dawn's heart went out for the Prime. He had lost so much, and no one around him understood or even gave a single care about it. Cemetery Wind had herded his people like animals and slaughtered them brutally without a second thought, not even thinking that they were sentient beings with emotions and feelings like ourselves.

Tears sprang into her eyes, and she wiped them away angrily, balling up her fists.

"Why do people have to be so cruel and heartless? Have we become so blinded by everything that we murder the same ones who have had our back from day one, and not give a _damn_ about it?" Her voice shook with emotion. She rarely cursed, but now her anger was showing through her words.

She stopped and took a deep, shaky breath to control herself. She continued a few moments later.

"If this is what humanity has become, then I want no part of it. I no longer wish to be categorized with the same ones who murder their closest friends and allies in cold blood. I no longer wish to be human."

The hard, angry look Dawn held in her brown eyes said everything. She had thoroughly meant every word.

Optimus was surprised. He was not expecting her reaction. Either one of two things were true: either she was a master at fooling others, or she truly meant what she said.

He wished he could believe the latter, but his fear of humans told him not to.

And he listened.

But neither did he fully believe she was fooling him. He wasn't entirely sure what to believe, but he resolved to find out; and if she was lying, then he would make sure that she would never speak her lies again.

His thoughts were interrupted when she moved. Dawn stretched, her back aching, and a popping sound came from her spinal cord. A sharp gasp of pain came from her, a grimace on her features.

"That hurt," she muttered, wincing. Dawn sighed and leaned back, watching the stars with a sad, forlorn expression.

"Optimus, I am sorry that you and your teammates went through all of this. And I know in my heart that if there was any way I could change all of that, I would do it without hesitation. I know you won't believe that, but I just wanted to tell you," she murmured softly, then returned to her previous quiet state.

Optimus sat where he was in silence. How he wished he could believe her.

But betrayal had scarred him straight to his spark, and it would take more than just mere words to mend those wounds.

Dawn gave the still, silent semi a pained, almost tearful look. She couldn't even begin to imagine how much pain he was in, both emotional and physical. Her heart ached painfully, wishing that there was some way she could ease his pain.

But for now, there was nothing she could do. So they sat together in the grass in silence, Dawn watching the stars, and Optimus listening to the faint crickets and other soft nighttime sounds.

Dawn lay on her back in the grass, gazing up into space with a lonely, sad expression. A single tear streaked across her face.

The two spent the rest of the night in silence, absorbed in their own thoughts. The Prime stayed silent, and Dawn never broke that silence.

By the time the sun began to rise, Dawn was chilled to the bone, but she did not move. She refused to give in to her desires, while the one Cybertronian she cared for beyond belief suffered.

Finally, Optimus broke the silence.

"You are cold."

"It doesn't matter," Dawn said.

Optimus, however, knew she was being stubborn for a reason, just by her body language. Her reason why was beyond him, but there was a reason.

He changed the subject. "We will be leaving soon."

Dawn sighed and eventually heaved herself to her feet, relenting to the Prime. She gave the Mack a sad, sympathetic look.

"Thank you," she murmured softly, briefly closing her eyes to suppress her pained emotions, before she turned and slowly walked away.

She made her way back to the abandoned gas station and quietly slipped inside. Natasha stood just inside and gave Dawn a tired smile.

"Couldn't sleep?" she asked. Dawn gave her a sad smile.

"Something like that," she said as she continued inside. She made her way to the counter she had slept on the day before and grabbed the shoulder bag she had used as a pillow. She pulled it open and reached inside.

She pulled out one of her pistols and laid it on the counter. She continued to pull a few other things out of the bag, including a combat knife in its sheath, a pair of sunglasses, combat boots, and a water bottle.

Dawn efficiently put on her combat boots, then wrapped a gun holster on her thigh. She slid the pistol inside before stuffing her combat knife in one of her boots for safe keeping. She readjusted her jacket, covering her pistol from prying eyes. She grabbed her water bottle and eagerly drank from it, downing half of the bottle in one sitting.

Natasha seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"Cade says to grab what we need. We'll be leaving shortly. He also says that we'll be stopping somewhere to eat," she told Dawn.

"Thanks," the older fangirl said, not bothering to turn around. She didn't want to give away her emotions, since she knew Natasha would be able to read her expressions.

Natasha gave Dawn a sympathetic look and placed a hand on the other's shoulder briefly in silent comfort before turning and leaving.

Dawn sighed after Natasha left, hanging her head. It wasn't fair what the Autobots had to go through. They didn't deserve any of it, and she wouldn't even wish that kind of betrayal on the Decepticons. They may have been cruel and tyrannical, but they wanted the same thing the Autobots did: their home planet back.

They may have gone in the wrong direction for their beliefs, but not all of their ideas and beliefs were wrong.

Dawn gripped the edge of the counter tightly with her uninjured had, her nails digging into the counter. She would _not_ let Cemetery Wind, or anyone else, injure or harm any more Autobots, or even any Decepticons that they might encounter.

She snatched her sunglasses of the counter and put them on. Slinging her bag over her shoulder after placing her water bottle back inside, she walked outside, purpose echoing in her every step.

She had a mission to fulfill.

The group stopped near a place called 'Hole in the Rock'; or at least that was what the rock cliff said.

Everyone seemed eager to finally be able to stretch their legs, after being in a cramped vehicle for over two hours. Tessa sat in the driver's seat of the Mack, her legs propped up on the open door. Cade, Shane, Katherine, and the fangirls were dotted randomly around the Mack and the Hummer that sat in the grass. Dawn, however, sat on the foot ledge on the Mack, silently wiping away imaginary dirt off her combat boots.

Cade was tinkering with a contraption, and Dawn and the fangirls instantly recognized it as one of the Cemetery Wind seeker drones.

Dawn glanced over at Katherine. She sympathized for her. She couldn't have possibly known her actions would create such destruction. Dawn bowed her head, thinking with a frown on her face.

A burning sensation around her wrist made Dawn instinctively claw at her jacket, pulling back her jacket and revealing the black elbow sling around her arm, and the glowing bracelet around her wrist.

She quietly hissed at the pain, but then the voice spoke, and she forgot about her pain.

_He will need you and your friends_, the voice said in her mind.

Dawn did not want to call attention to herself, so she tried to speak within her own mind.

_Who?_ she asked.

_The last of the Primes, the one you are in the presence of_, the voice replied.

_How do I help him? _she asked.

_Be there for him. Comfort him, and do not betray them, for that will shatter his slight glimmer of hope._

_Can you help me with that?_ Dawn asked desperately. She knew it would shatter her if the Prime lost all hope because of her.

_I can only give advice, my child. The decision will be your's to make_, the voice said as it faded away.

Dawn sighed as her surroundings returned. She made up her mind instantly.

She would not let him, or any of his team go. She would protect them with her very last breath, if need be.

If she could give her feelings for the Prime, and he could learn to trust her, then that would just be an added bonus. But she had to take small steps before she could even begin to think about that, much less hope.

She briefly closed her eyes, the pain in her eyes hidden by her eyelids and her dark sunglasses.

Katherine's voice suddenly broke the silence.

"Hey, Dawn, are you hungry? Lindsay got some food for us," Katherine called over. Dawn opened her eyes and looked at the red-haired female.

"I'm starving," she replied, getting up from her perch and walking over. Katherine handed the oldest fangirl a couple packages and a full, unopened water bottle.

Dawn nodded her head gratefully. "Thank you," she replied.

Katherine gave her a sad look. "No; thank you," she said. "If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't have been able to apologize to them." She gave the Mack and the Hummer a sad look, her eyes misting.

Dawn stepped closer to the red-haired girl and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Remember this, Katherine. As long as there is good in this universe, there is still hope for redemption and forgiveness."

A few tears escaped Katherine's eyes, but she wiped them away.

"Thank you," she said emotionally. "That means so much to me."

Dawn let her hand fall from the other's shoulder and nodded slightly at her.

Katherine gave her a grateful smile and slowly turned, walking away. Dawn watched for a moment before making her way back to the Mack and sitting down where she had sat before. She ripped open the two packages, revealing their contents. Mini blueberry muffins and Pop Tarts. Not exactly the healthiest of choices, but at least it was food.

As she ate, she listened to the quiet conversations that drifted along the faint wind. She leaned back against the Mack, feeling the comforting warmth from the large vehicle seep through her clothes and jacket. She closed her eyes and sighed, occasionally sipping from her water bottle.

Dawn could already guess what Cade was doing without looking; just the sound of his tinkering told her everything. However, the sound quickly died away as Dawn found herself delving into her own depressing thoughts.

The combined warmth from the Mack she was resting on and the warmth from the sun's rays were lulling the eldest fangirl into a dreamlike state in between sleep and the waking world.

Her mind conjured fanciful imaginations where she found herself on a metallic world. _Cybertron_, she thought to herself as she looked around within her dream.

She looked down and saw herself as a primarily silver femme with purple accents.

"This is insane," she said in her dream, admiring herself.

Pedfalls caught her attention, and she turned around. She felt her heart, or rather spark, pulse faster.

Optimus stood in front of her, and was walking towards her.

She gave him a confused look, and he walked up beside her. Dawn heard him sigh.

"I miss my home planet," he rumbled. "I truly wish we had a way to return home, but we have no way of leaving Earth."

Dawn's spark went out to him, and she hesitantly placed a servo on his shoulder. He stiffened only slightly before relaxing.

"I know how you feel," she murmured sympathetically. She turned away, trying to hide the lubricants that threatened to spring out of her optics, but Optimus had already seen.

"It is comforting to know that someone shares the same emotions and feelings as I do," he commented, looking at the cities that lay before them.

"Do others think you have no emotions?" Dawn asked quietly. Optimus heaved a sigh again.

"Yes," he said. "Because I am a Prime and a leader, I must keep my emotions in check, for the sake of myself and my comrades."

"It's a horrible burden. I know how it feels." Dawn took in the sights before her. "My friends see me as their leader, and many days, it drains me. It's hard sometimes, to resist the urge to just sit down and let my shoulders sag, and just be able to show what I truly feel inside. I have to constantly suppress all of it, and it's a heavy burden." She closed her optics to maintain her composure.

Optimus nodded in agreement as he continued to look ahead. He seemed to be deep in thought. A few minutes later, he frowned.

He turned towards Dawn and gave her a puzzled look.

"Miss Meyers?"

Dawn suddenly jerked upright, her eyes snapping open. Metal pressed into her back, and bright sunlight made her eyes smart, even though she was still wearing her sunglasses. Sirens could be heard not too far away.

"Miss Meyers, we are leaving," Optimus said behind her in an almost cold tone. Dawn bit her tongue, preventing her from saying anything idiotic. She heaved herself to her feet and climbed up inside the Mack and settled herself in the sleeper portion of the cab. Cade, Tessa, Shane, and Katherine followed behind her shortly after. Katherine situated herself next to Dawn on the sleeper cab, and the others sat in the front seats. Katherine gave Dawn a tiny smile, to which the fangirl returned.

Shortly after, they were on the road again, and a seemingly endless plain of flat ground stretched on for miles on end. It quickly became boring, and Katherine sought out a way to pass by the time.

"Dawn?" she asked quietly.

"Hmm?"

Katherine pulled her legs up onto the sleeper and hugged her knees to her chest.

"What do you do, when your not, you know, with _them_?" she asked, indicating the Autobots.

Dawn shifted uncomfortably. "It's—complicated," she said, dodging the subject. "I really don't want to talk about it right now."

"That's alright. I understand completely." Katherine nudged her long red hair away from her face. "So, what do you want to talk about?"

Dawn pulled her legs to her chest, facing the younger girl in a similar position as her. She suddenly smiled mischievously, her expressions out of the norm when she was acting as a leader. But then again, she didn't have to act as a leader right then.

"This is way out of context, but what do you find attractive in a guy?" Dawn asked. Katherine gave her a look of surprise.

"I certainly wasn't expecting that question, but I like the topic." She smiled and shifted slightly closer, her feet in between Dawn's own. "Well, let's see. I really like a guy when he has muscles. He has to have muscular arms. Oooh! And a toned chest."

"Truth!" Dawn exclaimed quietly, so as to not disturb the others in the front seats. "I love it when his jawline is clearly defined—"

"And stubble!" Katherine interrupted with a wide grin. Dawn had to suppress her laughing.

"Yes," she agreed wholeheartedly.

Their conversation continued on, gradually changing from physical appeals to inner characteristics.

"—and he has to be romantic," Dawn said. Katherine's eyes brightened as she nodded excitedly.

"Oh, my word, yes!" she exclaimed.

"Are you guys done fangirling yet?" Shane asked irritably. Tessa punched his arm.

"That's what girls do," she argued. Shane was silent, and Dawn saw Tessa smirk slightly.

"Katherine," Dawn said after a moment, slowly turning her head to look at the red-haired girl, an idea forming in her mind, "what do you think of samurais?"

Her eyes became huge. "Oh my word, you have no idea," she breathed, her eyes lighting up like stars. Dawn smiled at her. She had a feeling the ex-Decepticon and the ex-Cemetery Wind founder would get along just fine, considering both of their pasts.

After that, it was pretty quiet in the cab, only occasional muffled conversations breaking the silence. Katherine eventually fell asleep, and Dawn let the red-haired girl's head rest on her shoulder.

At least some of them could sleep peacefully, without constant nightmares plaguing their mind.

Finally, after an hour and a half later, they stopped for a restroom break. They bought more food with the small amount of money they had left. Then after that, they were off again. Dawn let Katherine continue to sleep on her shoulder when they resumed their journey, even though the younger girl tried to apologize for it.

"No, it's alright. I didn't mind." Dawn's voice lowered to a murmur. "In truth, it made me feel like a sister again."

Katherine gave her a questioning, saddened look but didn't question her statement. After a moment, Dawn felt her head gently rest on her shoulder, and she smiled softly, her sadness still evident in her eyes, but she calmed a little as she rested her own head on Katherine's. She gently ran her fingers through the red-gold hair, effectively lulling the younger girl to sleep.

Unbenownst to Dawn, a certain mech watched Dawn's actions silently as he drove. He saw the pain in her eyes, even though she tried to suppress it. The Prime watched as she closed her eyes tightly as moisture tried to seep out from between her eyelids.

Dawn breathed deeply in order to calm herself. Her first breath was shaky, but the next few after the first evened out into calm, slow breaths. After a few moments, she finally opened her eyes. Her brown orbs were still glassy, and her sadness still evident, but she had at least regained her composure.

Optimus was surprised to realize that he and Dawn shared similar emotions, although he had more control over them. He wouldn't have admitted it out loud, but he found it strangely comforting. He desperately hoped that he could trust her.

But how could he, after such unforgivable betrayal by her own race? When almost all of her species hated his race?

But then again, not all of her race hated them, if he could believe the fangirls, Katherine, Cade, Tessa, and Shane.

That gave him the tiniest shred of hope in his spark.

And as he drove, he pondered over the flux he had earlier in the day.

The exact same one that Dawn had.


	9. Chapter 9

Dawn felt someone nudge her shoulder gently.

"Hey, Katherine, Dawn, we're almost there," Tessa said.

Dawn's eyes snapped open immediately, but Katherine only gave a faint moan and snuggled closer to Dawn.

Dawn looked at the red-haired girl and smiled softly. The young girl's involuntary actions brought back happier memories of her childhood, and her siblings.

But then Dawn remembered the things that had occurred only a year before, and her heart clenched painfully. She clenched her jaw, squeezing her eyes shut and turning her head away to hide her self-hated tears.

_Primus, why am I so emotionally vulnerable suddenly? I wasn't like this back home_, she thought in her head. She half-expected to receive a response, but none came. Of course she didn't; Primus could not have spoken to her. She could not be important. Nor would Primus listen to her.

So she believed.

Dawn sighed when she finally felt the tears recede, and she opened her eyes, only to have a near-heart attack when she saw a feminine face inches from her own.

"Hey, are you okay? You looked like you were really upset about something," Tessa said quietly.

Dawn slowly backed away from the girl. "I'll be fine," she said, but her voice cracked a little, betraying her true emotions. She quickly looked away and avoided Tessa's intense gaze.

Tessa sighed softly and moved away. "If you need anything, just tell me."

"Thank you," Dawn said in a quiet voice, still refusing to look at the Yeager daughter.

Tessa moved away, glancing at the fangirl occasionally as she sat back in her seat. Shane looked at Tessa a little too long for Cade's liking, and the mechanic shot glares at the Irish-sounding driver.

Dawn turned, looking away from them, and turned her attention to Katherine, and a small smile graced her lips. How she missed being a sister, despite her younger siblings trying to annoy her to no end.

She gently nudged Katherine with her fingertips.

"Huh?" Katherine hesitantly opened her eyes. "I'm awake," she said groggily, sitting up and looking blearily around the cab. Her roaming eyes eventually landed on Dawn, and the red-haired female gave her a tired but warm smile. Dawn returned it, glad that the younger girl had slept peacefully, despite all that had happened from recent events.

The eldest fangirl looked out of the windshield, only to be met with the flat plains of desert and sand. Her heart leaped in excitement upon seeing the lone white Western Star that drove closer to them on the other side of the two-lane road.

And, as expected, Optimus Prime, the very semi the five humans were inside, scanned the large vehicle and changed alternate modes as they drove.

The cab lurched as metal panels and mechanisms moved and contorted, forming an entirely different shape. The sound alone from the semi's transformation sent thrilled tingles down Dawn's spine.

The Prime's once-faded, rusting paintjob now gleamed marvelously in the hot, blazing sun. The striking colors of ruby red and sapphire blue stood out proudly against the bland faded gold of the landscape around them. Dawn couldn't help but give a small smile, knowing that his new form would give him an entirely different look on his bipedal form, and she honestly couldn't wait to see it.

"That was insane! It was awesome, but it was insane! Right?" Shane exclaimed, his eyes wide with excitement and thrill. Dawn had to quirk a smile; his enthusiasm coincided with her own, though respectively, she had more reason to be thrilled about it.

It was only a few minutes later when they drove by cliffs, and Dawn heard rapid gunshots, immediately knowing where they came from. A short time later, she spotted a lone helicopter in the sky, and she gave a full out grin.

"The others," she murmured, her eyes wide.

"There's hope after all," Katherine said, peering out of the window in awe. Dawn looked back at her, her mouth open in shock. Had she just quoted from Drift without knowing?

Apparently she did, given the confused, blank look that the red-haired girl had given her upon seeing the fangirl's shocked expression.

As they drove past more and more cliffs that seemed to shoot straight out from the ground, the other Autobots raced towards their leader as he made his way through the canyon.

Only minutes later Dawn saw a flash of green and knew immediately it was Crosshairs. She could just make out his voice against the roar of Optimus's powerful engine.

"Aww, yeah! Mr. Leader of the Free Galaxy's back. I knew you'd make it. I never doubted ya," she managed to pick out. A blue and gold helicopter flew down and changed into Drift's samurai form in midair and landing on his pedes next to Crosshairs. He hit the paratrooper's arm before showing his sign of respect to the Prime, who had braked to a stop.

"We heard your warning. We've been waiting," the samurai said.

Optimus didn't reply, only opening his doors for his passengers to get out. They all did so without hesitation, except Katherine. Dawn, who was already halfway climbing out of the semi, saw the other woman's hesitation and climbed back inside the cab.

"Come on, Katherine. It's okay," she said soothingly, but Katherine just shook her head. Evidently a fear had suddenly taken over her mind.

"I can't go out there, Dawn. They hate me," she told me.

"Katherine," Dawn said sternly. "If Ratchet and Optimus have allowed you near them again and allowed you to come with them, then the others will do so, too."

Katherine hesitantly met Dawn's intense gaze. "You really mean that?" she asked. Dawn nodded, not breaking her eye contact.

Katherine slowly relaxed. "Okay."

Dawn sighed softly, relieved. "Come on. Let's get out so Optimus can change forms without us inside," she said, climbing out of the cab again. Katherine hesitated only a brief moment before following.

As soon as their feet touched the ground, Optimus transformed. Dawn immediately found herself transfixed by the sight with wide eyes, the scene being even more amazing in real life than in the movie she had seen.

Once the change was complete, the Prime immediately spoke.

"Humans have asked us to play by their rules." He seemed to scoff at the statement. "Well, the rules have just changed."

Dawn felt her heart lurch in her chest at the single interjection he used. Before, he wouldn't have used the word, but everything changes at some point, no matter the situation.

She mentally reprimanded herself for her feelings towards the Prime that started to resurface yet again.

_Dawn, get a grip! Now's not the time to start fangirling all over him. Your life, and their lives, are in danger by Cemetery Wind, and that's more important now_, she scolded herself.

"Humans," Dawn heard Hound spat as he tossed aside various weapons on his person. "Bunch a' backstabbin' weasels!"

Dawn barely even paid attention to Drift's haiku reply, instead focusing her attention onto the red and white Autobot that had just joined them. Around his pedes were Dawn's fangirl friends.

_Ratchet?_

Seeing Lindsay's face was priceless. She looked completely star struck and kept looking behind her to get a fleeting glimpse of the medic. Dawn had to admit; the CMO definitely looked good in red.

Dawn started towards her longtime friends, but Crosshairs' voice stopped her in her tracks.

"Why the hell is _she_ doing here?!" the green paratrooper roared, one of his massive guns aimed directly at Katherine's chest.

Dawn had absolutely no memory of running up to Katherine and shoving her out of the gun's way, placing herself in the other's spot.

The eldest fangirl's voice came out surprisingly even and calm.

"She is not to blame for all of this. They got out of her control. If I am wrong, and she is responsible, then I take full responsibility."

Every single human and Autobot looked at Dawn with a surprised expression. However, when Dawn finally risked a glance at Optimus, she was surprised to see his optics holding the smallest amount of respect mingling with his surprise.

"Crosshairs, stand down," he said, looking away from Dawn. "She and the others risked their lives to save mine and Ratchet's. We owe them."

After several moment's hesitation, Crosshairs lowered his weapon, and Dawn could hear several relieved sighs behind her, and then bodies pressed around her.

"Dawn, you've gotten crazier," Lindsay said, shaking her head disapprovingly. Natasha and Stella spoke as well, but Dawn didn't hear them. She moved away from them and walked towards Katherine, who was still on the ground, sitting crosslegged and staring at the sand with a blank, lost expression. Dawn held out her hand invitingly, and Katherine looked up. She looked at the fangirl's outstretched hand and hesitantly took it, and Dawn gently pulled her to her feet.

"I'm sorry I pushed you, but I honestly don't remember doing it. Did I hurt you at all?"

Katherine, despite what had just taken place, laughed. "My word, Dawn, you are truly one of a kind. You care about others and put their lives before your's, even if they don't deserve it." Her smile faded. "But to answer your question, no, you didn't hurt me."

Dawn smiled softly at the red-haired girl. "I'm glad." She kept her eye contact for a moment before turning to head back to her fellow fangirls, but Katherine reached out a hand and grabbed Dawn's arm.

"Wait," she said, almost urgently. Dawn turned to look at Katherine.

"Thank you," Katherine said quietly, "for everything."

Dawn smiled at her and nodded in reply. "You're welcome, Kathy."

The other woman gave a full smile at the nickname, and Dawn felt the urge to compliment her smile.

"Smile more often. It looks good on you."

"Thanks to you, I can," Kathy replied.

The fangirl patted the other's shoulder lightly. "Come with me. I think the others are getting hungry and planning on making some food soon."

By the time the sun set, food had been made, cooked, and eaten around the fire that the humans had built. The brilliant blaze sent every shadow flickering in an eerie dance behind every frame.

A single figure sat apart from the group of humans, finding her perch in the shadows away from the others.

Dawn sighed. It was times like this that she hated the most. Her moments of regret, grief, and sorrow had always weighed heavily on her as the most unpleasant burden.

Having taken her combat boots off and rolled up her pant legs in the cool air, her bare feet and legs were covered with sand, but she paid no attention to it as she stared ahead into the night sky, resting her head on one hand.

Footsteps approached her from behind, and another figure came up to her.

"Mind if I join?" Ratchet's holoform asked.

Dawn lifted her head to look up at him.

"No. Go right on ahead."

Ratchet sat down next to Dawn without hesitation. She could already see that there was a question on his processor.

"So what did you want to ask me?"

The medic gave her the faintest of confused looks before it turned to the same amount of respect.

"So you're able to read body language and facial expressions, even though I was masking it. You certainly have admirable traits."

"Thanks. Now what is your question? No use to beat around the bush."

The CMO sighed before speaking. "You mentioned that a voice told you that we could trust Katherine."

_Here we go, _she thought.

"I don't know who it is, but it's not me. It doesn't sound like me, and it doesn't talk like me, if you're implying that I'm crazy."

"I'm not saying that—"

"Well, then what are you saying?" Dawn asked impatiently.

"I would tell you, if you would let me finish!" Ratchet said, beginning to become annoyed.

Dawn opened her mouth to speak, then closed it. "Fine."

"Tell me what it told you."

"It's told me a lot of things, Ratchet. I can't name them all."

"Try to," he said insistently.

Dawn heaved a loud sigh. This could take a while.

She finally proceeded to tell the medic every time she remembered the voice had spoken to her, from the first, which was when it told her to check on her sister and she found a burglar about to enter her sister's room, to the last, which had happened just outside of Cade's barn. The entire time, the CMO sat next to her, silently listening.

When she finally finished, he was quiet for a moment.

"So this voice spoke to you both from where you came, and here?" he said.

"Yes."

The medic hummed lowly as he thought. After several long moments, he spoke.

"Primus."

Dawn frowned in confusion. "What?"

"The only conclusion I can come up with is it is Primus. Your fate seemed to have been intertwined with us from the start, if we are to believe what you say is true."

"It is true!"

"Regardless, _if_ it is true, then the only logical option is Primus, because he has been known to speak to a select few, and you seem to have been placed here for a reason."

"And why are you believing what I'm saying? What if I lied?" Dawn mock laughed, disbelieving his theory automatically.

Ratchet looked straight into her eyes and seemed to stare into her soul.

"Are you?" he asked lowly, not breaking eye contact. Dawn's fake laugh died in her throat, and she was silent. A few moments passed, and the medic moved away and looked towards the dark horizon.

"No; I can see that you weren't lying, so my theory still stands."

"I never thought you were the religious type, Ratchet," Dawn muttered.

"Time's change. I've seen things that have made me change my processor on some things." He then looked at her, and she knew exactly what he was asking with his eyes.

"I may be a Christian, but believing Primus is real is a bit over my head. It's basically asking me to be polytheistic!" Dawn said defensively. Ratchet said nothing in response.

"You have no answer." She nodded, looking away. "As I suspected."

Ratchet growled lowly at her. "I may not have all the answers, but at least I am the one who has an open mind!"

"So what am I supposed to do if Primus really were speaking to me?" she asked sarcastically.

"Speak to him," he simply said, but his holoform's eyes still showed his annoyance with her.

"Fine!" Dawn said angrily.

_Primus?_ Dawn asked in her mind, still fuming as she crossed her arms.

_Do not be angry at him. He is only trying to help_, the voice replied.

Dawn yelped and jumped back in terror.

"That wasn't supposed to happen!" she yelled, her heart hammering.

Ratchet looked at her, and his holoform's glowing eyes widened a little.

"It worked? You spoke to him?"

Her breathing was heavy and her eyes were wide with shock.

"He spoke to you? What did he say?"

"Shut up!" Dawn yelled. She shook her head violently, squeezing her eyes shut in a futile effort to rid herself of her thoughts.

"No, you can't be in my head," she groaned.

_Child, please calm down_.

"No! I will _not_ calm down! _**GET OUT OF MY HEAD!**_"

Dawn's screaming attracted everyone's attention, and the humans were the first to rush over to see what was wrong.

Ratchet was trying to calm the eldest fangirl down, but his efforts fell on deaf ears as she clutched her head and continued to scream.

"_Get out of my head! Get! Out! __**Get out!**_"

Ratchet gave up talking to her and grabbed her arms tightly, yanking her hands away from her face.

"Dawn!" he yelled angrily. "Will you calm down? Or do I have to do it myself?"

"Get your hands off me!" Dawn snarled, yanking her arms out of the medic's grip. She staggered to her feet, but moaned and clutched her head again, doubling over.

"Stop—talking," she moaned, but suddenly her breath caught in her throat. "No," she breathed. "Can't—sleep, please no..."

Ratchet watched her eyes roll into the back of her head, and her body fell limp. He barely managed to scramble to his feet and catch her before she fell and hurt herself. Without hesitation, he pressed his fingers to her throat, checking Dawn's pulse. To his secret relief, it was strong; fast but slowing to a normal level.

"What happened?" Natasha asked, looking worriedly at her friend. Stella clutched onto Natasha's arm, staring at her closest friend.

Lindsay ran up to Ratchet and gently took Dawn from his arms. "What happened?"

The medic's holoform looked up at the Autobots that circles around in the confusion. The holoform disintegrated into a shower of sparks, and a red and white Hummer drove up and pulled apart and reformed itself into Ratchet's bipedal mode. He crossed his massive arms and sighed heavily.

"She is a diviner. Primus speaks to her," he said.


End file.
